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LINCOLNIANA. 




33 s 1 n : 

WILLIAM V. SPENCER. 

iS6s. 



No. 



ONLY l^O COPIES PRINTED. 






Camhridor: Printed by John Wilson and Sons 



^f^ 




PREFACE. 




HATEVER relates to our Martyr-President possesses 
undying interest. In this work, the Publisher has 
aimed to snatch from oblivion some of the best of the 
many discourses and comments on Mr. Lincoln's life and charac- 
ter, by transferring them from the papers of the day to a worthy 
place in our permanent literature. The volume contains nothing 
heretofore published in a pamphlet or book form. The Table of 
Contents shows the breadth of the field from which the present 
sheaf has been gleaned; for, in forming the volume, the lines of 
party, se6l, and nation, have been completely ignored. In bind- 
ing these scattered leaves together into a memorial chaplet, the 
Publisher would show his respect for the memory of the Great 
Emancipator. 



Boston, Sept. 9, 1S65. 




CONTENTS. 



SERMONS. 



Abbott, Rev. F. E 

Brigham, Rev. C. H 

CoRDNER, Rev. J 

Chadwick, Rev. J. W 

CoRWiN, Rev. E. T 

Damon, Rev. S. C 

DuTTON, Rev. O. H 

Hartzell, Rev. J. H 

Hughes, Rev. D. L 

Hull, Rev. Moses 

JuNKiN, Rev. Geo., D.D. . . . 
Marshall, Rev. W. R. • . . 
Potts, Rev. J. P., B.A. . . . 

Rowland, Rev. L. S 

Stratton, Rev. J. B., D.D. . . 

Silver, Rev. Abiel 

Talbott, Rev. J. J 

Watson, Rev. B., D.D. . . . 



Page 
I 



Dover, N.H 

Taunton, Mass 8 

Montreal, Canada 21 

Brooklyn, N.Y 36 

Millstone, N.J 52 

Honolulu, Sandwich Is. ■ 63 

Holjoke, Mass ']6 

Buffalo, N.Y 89 

Des Moines, Iowa 100 

Battle Creek, Mich 123 

Philadelphia, Pa 134 

Columbus, Ohio 148 

London, Eng 167 

Bangor, Me 177 

Natchez, Miss 186 

Wilmington, Del 204 

Louisville, Ky 212 

Philadelphia, Pa 218 



EULOGIES, SPEECHES, AND LETTERS. 

Banks, Gen. N. P New Orleans, La 233 

Carruthers, Rev. J. J., D.D. . . . Portland, Me 239 

Gilbert, Surgeon R. H Jefferson, Ind 248 

d 



vi Contents. 

Page 

HuRLBUT, Maj.-Gen New Orleans, La 253 

Jones, A. T Philadelphia, Pa 258 

Stebbins, Rev. H San Francisco, Cal 268 

Thompson, Rev. J. P., D.D New York 274 

Adams, Hon. C. F London, England 281 

Disraeli, Hon. Benj „ >> 286 

Grey, Sir George ,, ,-, 288 

Morse, Hon. F. H , „ 296 

Russell, Lord John „ ■,, 298 

Smith, Prof. Goldwin ,, ,, 303 

Da Silva, Sr. R Lisbon, Portugal 307 

D'Aubigne, Dr. Merle Geneva, Switzerland 315 

Democratic Association Florence, Italy 317 

Lawrence, T. B ,, , 31S 

Laboulaye, Edouard Paris, France 320 

Mill, John Stuart Avignon, France 293 

Martin, Henri Paris, France 327 



APPENDIX. 

Letter from Rev. Elias Nason 333 

List of Publications relating to the Assassination, Death, and Funeral 

Obsequies of Abraham Lincoln 334 




SERMONS. 



f 



LINCOLNIANA. 



THE MARTYR OF LIBERTY: 

A SERMON PREACHED IN THE UNITARIAN CHURCH, DOVER, N.H., 
ON SUNDAY, APRIL 1 6, 1 865 ; 

BY THE PASTOR, 

REV. FRANCIS E. ABBOT. 



Gen. 1. 19 : " Fear not; for am I in the place of God?" 

DEAR friends, we assemble this morning, in our house of 
worship, in the shadow of a mighty affli6tion. The hearts 
of a vast nation are throbbing with anguish, horror, and dismay. 
The pistol of the assassin has done its hellish work; and he, 
who, by the enthusiastic acclamations of a great people, was 
declared, but five short months ago, our chosen leader in the 
march to universal freedom, our foremost champion of liberty, 
has now become its martyr. In his fall, the country bleeds at 
every pore; the stoutest heart thrills with fear; and the voice of 
universal wailing is our requiem for the great departed. Trea- 
son, which we thought lay buried beneath the yet warm ashes of 
Richmond, has leaped over the heads of our vi6torious armies, 
and carried by storm the impregnable forts of Washington. To- 



The Martyr of Liberty. 



day, the enemies of God and man rejoice: to-day, friends, there 
is jubilee in hell. 

I had planned to congratulate you this morning on the down- 
fall of rebellion, and the inauguration of a new civilization. I 
had planned to speak hopeful words of our own prospe6tive 
agency in redeeming mankind from barbarism and sin; and to 
urge you, with fresh courage and rekindled zeal, to do your part 
in this great and noble work. But that theme must wait: God 
has given me a different message to-day. One subject alone 
occupies our hearts and minds; and I must hearken to the 
imperative demand of the hour. Its lessons are weighty and 
solemn; and woe to us if we heed them not! 

In the very hour of victory, w^hile the welkin rang with shouts 
of triumph and exultation ; ' while we gloried in the prowess of 
our armies and navies; while we rejoiced, and thanked God, that 
our gigantic task was well-nigh ended, — the stroke has fallen like 
a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky. The Ship of State has 
weathered the storms of mid-ocean, and now approaches the 
region of sunken reefs and tortuous channels; the haven is in 
sight: but the danger was never so great as now. And, behold! 
in the very hour when our need of a skilled and trusty pilot is 
most pressing, he is struck down at the helm. Who is so blind 
as not to see the peril? who so bold as not to fear it? Rebellion 
will receive fresh life from this its greatest triumph; and, trusting 
to gain by murder what it has failed to gain by war, will strain 
every nerve to follow up this terrific blow at the nation by 
others as terrific. Loyal men will be so maddened and dis- 
mayed by an outrage to which American history can furnish no 
parallel, as perhaps to seek security from its repetition by dan- 
gerous means. The day has gone b}^ when the Chief Magistrate 
of the great Republic could trust himself among the people. 
Henceforth, body-guards and household troops must attend his 



Rev. Francis E. Abbot. 



steps; and, in sight of a military pomp which has hitherto be- 
longed solely to the Old World, who, alas! can repeat our 
boast of olden times, that the American President is a simple 
citizen? And further, in their exasperation at this cowardly and 
bloody deed, the people of the North will be tempted, nay, have 
been tempted, to take unlawful vengeance on those whose guilty 
sympathy and support are given to its perpetrators. Who does 
not perceive that their fiendish crime has put liberty and law in 
greater jeopardy, and struck a sharper blow at the cause of our 
country and of humanity, than the murder of many thousands in 
fair and open battle ? If we have no place of refuge, if we can 
find no better than human succor, our hearts may well grow sick 
with fear and anguish.. What a friend we have lost! His ster- 
ling integrit}', his high moral principle, his unselfish and unambi- 
tious spirit, his simplicity and tender-heartedness, his pure and 
patriotic aims, and, above all, his humble and childlike faith in 
God, — these gave him a hold on the popular heart, and an influ- 
ence, both at home and abroad, which have made him almost the 
saviour of his country. Faults he doubtless had; mistakes he 
doubtless made: but the country reposed so confidingly on his 
honesty, firmness, and cautious judgment, that it now feels 
stunned at its loss. Peace to thy ashes, tried and trusty friend! 
Thou hast fought a good fight; thou hast earned a rich reward, — 
praise, honor, and everlasting love, from thy country; approba- 
tion, benedi6lion, and eternal life, from Almighty God. We 
knew not how we loved thee, till we found thee passed away for 
ever. For us hast thou toiled; yea, for us hast thou died. Our 
hearts are full of sorrow, and our eyes of tears: when shall we 
look upon thy like again .^ Peace, I say, — peace to thy ashes, 
for evermore! 

I fear, my friends, that we have leaned overmuch upon this 
great-hearted and large-minded man. I find myself bewildered 



4 The Martyr of Liberty. 

by his death, and asking, almost faithlessly, "Who can fill his 
place?" And yet the whole life of Abraham Lincoln is a rebuke 
to such doubts and fears. Perhaps his strongest trait was a 
childlike faith in the guidance of Almighty wisdom. From that 
bleeding corpse in the Presidential Mansion comes a voice more 
solemn than any of its living words, a voice full of encourage- 
ment and reproof, "Fear not; for am I in the place of God?" 
The nation has leaned upon him, it scarcely knew how much, 
and looked to him to steer us safely among the perilous rocks of 
reconstruftion. And now that we have lost our faithful helms- 
man, we are warned afresh to put our trust where he put his, — 
in a God of justice and mercy. The bullet of the assassin can- 
not reach to the Almighty's throne. The Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth for ever. No: great and good as he was, honored, 
trusted, and loved as he was, Abraham Lincoln is 7tot " in the 
place of God." Though our perils are imminent and manifold, 
it is weakness to be dismayed, and treason to despair. The 
cause of our country is the cause of God; for he loves justice, 
mercy, and righteousness better than we, and will raise up men 
to carry out his holy designs. Did he not summon him whom 
we mourn, out of obscurity and humble station, to be the Moses 
of our deliverance, and to guide his chosen people through a Red 
Sea of blood? And, though our leader has fallen before we have 
reached the Promised Land of peace, shall we not trust God to 
raise us up a Joshua? We dishonor our cause and our country, 
our own souls, and their Creator, if we give way to the cowardly 
fears which assail us. The very fa6t, that God has given us a 
Lincoln in the past, and a Grant in the present, is a pledge that 
the line of our heroes and saviours shall not fail in the future. 
Our fear must pass away with the first shock of this tremendous 
crime : we must " come to ourselves," and repossess our souls. 
After the battle of Cannae, which cost Rome seventy thousand of 



Rev. Francis E. Abbot. 



her best troops, and brought her to the very brink of destruction, 
the Roman Senate voted public thanks to ^milius Paulus, the 
commander of the defeated forces, " because he had not de- 
spaired of the Repubhc." To-day, dear friends, when a great 
prop and support is stricken out from under us, and a danger 
more terrible than the loss of an army overhangs us, America 
calls upon her children not to " despair of the Republic," not to 
lose faith in God. On him, and not on any human strength or 
wisdom, depends our ultimate salvation. 

Abraham Lincoln was a providential man; and, because I 
most thoroughly believe this, I believe, also, that he lived to fulfil 
his mission. He lived to vindicate the insulted majesty of the 
nation, and to redeem the promises of his first Inaugural Address. 
He lived to enter Richmond in triumph, to behold the Stars and 
Stripes waving over the rebel capital, and to witness the de- 
struction of the grand army of the rebellion. By his moral 
greatness, his patience, his forbearance, his practical wisdom and 
unselfish patriotism, he has earned a renown pure as that of Wash- 
ington, and will stand side by side with him, through all coming 
time, on the same high pedestal. I would that his earthly re- 
mains might slumber in the same august tomb ; and that Mount 
Vernon, doubly consecrated by the ashes of Washington, and by 
the ashes of him who alone, in the annals of historic time, stands 
forth his peer, might become the Mecca of the New World, — 
the shrine where millions of pilgrims, through generations untold, 
and from nations yet unborn, shall kneel and pray, and rise up 
fired with the divinest inspirations of libert}'. The toil of that 
great soul is ended. 

Perhaps the day had come when Abraham Lincoln could no 
longer serve the Republic he so dearly loved; perhaps, by his 
exceeding kindness and mercy towards undeserving men, he was 
about to sacrifice the vital interests of his country; and perhaps 



The Martyr of Liberty. 



God suffered the long-threatened and long-averted blow to fall at 
last on that beloved head, just in season to prevent dire calamity 
to America, and a lasting eclipse to his own pure fame. Who 
shall fathom the purposes of the Unsearchable One ? The great 
work of Abraham Lincoln is still incomplete; but his death by 
horrid hands may be the only way to complete it. Of one thing 
be sure, — God's plans are never balked. The souls of John 
Brown and Abraham Lincoln in solemn fellowship are " march- 
ing on," God himself at their head, and millions of tramping feet 
in their rear: the earth shakes with their mighty tread; and, be- 
neath the millstone of that stupendous march, slavery, treason, 
and rebellion shall be ground into impalpable dust. 

But, friends, the lesson of renewed faith in God is not the 
only one forced in upon our minds by this heart-sickening crime. 
We need, and now we see our need written out in letters of 
blood, not only a passive faith in God, but an a6live obedience to 
his will. Murder is a stern tutor, and sternness is the burden of 
his tuition." The fiend of secession has at last torn off his mask, 
and, like the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, has revealed to the 
outraged light of heaven a visage hideous with all the ugliness of 
hell. Every misguided follower whose heart is honest, but 
whose head is weak, must shrink back in horror and affright. 
None but devils in human form will justify or palliate a deed 
like this; and to such our reply must be short and sharp. Not 
revenge, but self-defence ; not vengeance through an irresponsi- 
ble and lawless mob, but justice through courts of law. We 
must make it dangerous to dabble in treason; for we see its 
danger. The diabolism of secession is now patent to all; and, if 
we show it either mercy or pity, our blood shall be upon our 
own heads. In the exultation of victory, the nation betrayed 
marks of a good-natured weakness, of a criminal magnanimity; 
and God may have suffered this appalling blow to strike us, to 



Rev. Francis E. Abbot. 



waken us to our duty, and startle us into obedience. Make sure 
work with treason, exterminate rebellion from the land; give no 
rebel the right to vote, until his contrition is transparent; and if 
the great ringleaders fall into our hands, as a solemn aft of self- 
proteftion, and as a warning to all futurity, mete out to them the 
extreme penalty of the law. Brand treason for all coming time 
with the infamy of the gallows. We have no right to trifle with 
our great responsibilities : we are trustees for posterity, and must 
transmit to them unimpaired the noble heritage of freedom. 
" Heal not the wound of the daughter of my people slightly." 
The blood of our martyr calls us afresh, in no ambiguous lan- 
guage, to renewed self-consecration, courage, and fidelity. Mild 
and forgiving to repentant prodigals, we must be stern and un- 
compromising to conquered rebels. Leniency to traitors means 
death to loyal men. Alas for us, if we leave smouldering embers 
in our new temple of liberty ! 

These, then, are the lessons of the sad event which has filled 
our hearts with gloom and apprehension, — greater faith in God, 
greater faithfulness to freedom. Bitter as is our loss, that hal- 
lowed blood will not have flowed in vain, if we truly heed its 
silent eloquence. The sombre drapery of woe, which here, in 
the house of God, feebly typifies a grief too deep for words, is but 
a pompous hypocrisy, if we follow not his example for whom we 
grieve. He may not always have been the first to comprehend 
the great duty of the hour; but, once comprehended, he was 
always the first to do it. Pure and tender of heart, wise and 
firm in a6tion, devout and childlike in spirit, — O Abraham Lin- 
coln, thou hast died for us, and our souls are heavy for thee this 
day! Take the love which fills our hearts, and the tears which 
fill our e3'es, as our sole return for thy sacrifice of life. We take 
up the task which drops from thy dying hand; and may a double 
portion of thy spirit rest upon us! 

Dover., N. //., Enquirer, Afril 27, 1S65. 



THE NATIONAL BEREAVEMENT: 

A DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 
TAUNTON, MASS., ON SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL l6, 1S65 ; 

BY REV. CHARLES H. BRIGHAM, 

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 



Lam. ii. i : " How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, 
and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel ! " 

IT is a sad and solemn time for our assembly to-day. We 
should have remembered, with anthem and rapture, the new 
birth of the spirit on the day of the Saviour's rising. We should 
have kept the double festival of the resurre6lion of the great 
Deliverer and the resurrection of this Christian nation. But how 
suddenly all our joy is changed into woe! How terribly thick 
darkness has come upon our exhilaration! How God has called 
in this solemn day his terrors round about us ! In what bewilder- 
ment of soul, as men stunned and prostrate, we wait for the next 
tidings ! So short an interval, and 3''et so great a change ! Where 
are we now? and what shall become of us.^ 

Our day of Fasting in the past week was changed to a day 
of Thanksgiving : we could not mourn when such hope was 
opened, when there was such brightness of promise, when the 
agony was over, and the land seemed redeemed and saved. 
Even the ancient Fast-time of the Christian Church, the memorial 



Rev. Charles H. Brigham. 



day of the Saviour's death, was made this year a holiday in the 
land, as it was chosen for the restoration of the nation's banner to 
the walls from which this banner had been lowered in shame four 
years ago. But now, on this high holiday of the Church and of 
the land, we keep our Fast. The whole loyal nation is in mourn- 
ing. The bells which rang out at the opening of the last week, 
in every village and hamlet, from the farthest East to the farthest 
West, their festal peal, at the close of the week tolled their most 
mournful refrain for the beauty of the land, slain upon its high 
places. It is a funeral service that invites us, more melancholy 
than any that has ever called us together; and, with bowed heads, 
and hearts refusing to be comforted, we wait in our places of 
prayer, asking onl}' help from the Lord, — asking only that the 
Father above will show us the light of his countenance. 

What to say now, — how from this chaos of emotions, this 
mingling of WTath and fear, of sadness and doubt, of trembling 
anxiety and stern determination, of incredulous surprise and 
mournful convi6tion, this sense of the omnipotence of the all- 
disposing God, who so strangely baffles our designs, and enforces 
the folly and vanity of our mortal hopes, — how from this chaos 
to draw so soon any wise or sober thought, who shall know? 
Is it possible, is it decent, to make a homily to-day out of this 
awful catastrophe ? Shall we venture to insult this great grief by 
our cold moralizing, or to put it aside by any auguries of the 
future.^ Shall we forecast results, and arrange plans, and cry 
in frivolous haste, "The king is dead: long live the king!" as 
we turn from the ruler that was to the ruler that is ? Or shall we 
forget all composure of soul, and summon up the spirit of rage, 
and cry, " Vengeance, destru6lion, and death!" for the deed of 
blood that has been done ? Shall the pulpit become this day the 
instigator of violence, to rouse the bewildered souls of the peo- 
ple to fury? Not so shall it be here. But we will wait humbly 

2 



lo The National Bereavement. 

upon the Lord, and only ask that he will enable us to bear this 
burden. 

A great crime has been committed in our land, — a bloodier 
deed than the nation ever knew, though the land has in these last 
years in more than metaphor been deluged with blood. It is a 
crime against the nation, and for it there will be a fearful recom- 
pense. God grant that the forebodings of those who see in this 
the beginning of a reign of terror may not be realized; that the 
new ruler may have firmness to check all outbreaks, and to 
enforce the laws even against popular fury! We need not sup- 
press our horror at the crime. We need not disguise our sense 
of the great danger which it brings upon the land, even in this 
time when the triumph of our arms seems assured. It may inspirit 
the leaders of the rebellion, and breathe life into the dying em- 
bers. It may encourage the fallen traitors to lift their heads, and 
miake one more struggle for their desperate cause. It may reverse 
the order so successfully brought in, and restore the iniquities 
which seemed to be ruined and dead. We may conjure up a 
hundred evils vv^hich shall come from this crime. Yet it is better 
to look upon the other side of the pi6ture, and see what we have 
to depend upon, where we stand, even with this terror around us. 
Our brave armies are still in the field, strong, resolute, hopeful; 
not to be frightened by any deed of an assassin ; ready to follow 
their leaders, as ready now as ever, against foul treason. We have 
generals in command, who have been proved competent, wise, 
faithful, loyal, and who will surely see to it that the Republic 
shall suffer no detriment. Of the new ruler, whatever may be 
his defe6ts in habit and his lack in culture, no one can doubt the 
ability or the patriotism. Unless he shall surround himself with 
bad advisers, he cannot readily err; he cannot immediately alter 
the course of things. The nation has force enough, union enough, 
will enough, to prote6l itself against any new outbreaks of trea- 



Rev. Charles H. Brigham. 1 1 

son. The murder of the ruler comes too late to destroy the 
Government, too late to create anarchy and confusion, too late to 
restore the broken power of slavery, too late to give traitors 
success and credit. There is no rival Government that can be set 
up against this Government. The assassin has killed but one 
man: he has not slain the nation. If he had done his w^ork in 
those 3^ears when the traitors were encamped close to the gates 
of the capital, or when their armies, flushed with victory, had 
invaded our Northern soil, or even when the rival ruler had his 
cabinet and his court, his army and navy, it might have brought 
disaster fearful to contemplate. But now it comes too late. It is 
a crime useless against the life of the nation, though it may be 
hideous in the passions it shall engender. 

This crime will, nevertheless, teach us several things, which 
have been often enough urged upon us, but which many of our 
people are slow to learn. It will teach all classes the foolishness 
of attempting to conciliate traitors by dealing gently with their 
offences, and meeting them half-way when they have come into 
our power. Our murdered President, in opposition to the advice 
of many of his wisest friends, who knew these Southern traitors 
and their spirit, who had been their associates, was disposed to 
treat them kindly, to overlook their crimes, to grant them am- 
nesty, to believe that they might be won back to honor and loy- 
alty. In a few days, probably, his proclamation would have been 
published, granting such easy terms as would have amazed even 
these men. It is safe to say, that no document of that kind will 
soon be issued. It is safe to say, that, for the present at least, there 
will be no more compromise with traitors ; that there will be no 
favor shown either to rebels in arms, or rebels who have been 
forced to lay down their arms. The traitors in our hands will 
be fitly dealt with by justice and the law, even if they find no 
quicker or sharper penalty. This a6t of violence, coming just at 



1 2 The National Bereavement. 

the time when the leader of the rebel armies and his companions 
had been permitted virtually to go free, and even allowed privi- 
leges and honors, — the man and the men who have done more to 
sustain the rebellion than any others, and have upon them an 
awful weight of guilt and stain of blood, — will go far to settle 
the question, how to deal with traitors, and what shall be done 
with them. The sentiment of the army, the sentiment of the 
nation, will permit no more trifling. This reward for clemency 
and favor, this answer to kind dealing and pardon, will hush, for 
the time at least, all talk of amnesty, and will tell the leaders what 
they have to expe6l, if they fall into the hands of men w^ho will 
remember their crime instead of pitying their misfortune. 

And this crime will teach the people by a terrible illustration 
the spirit of slavery, the spirit of that form of social life which is 
based upon the oppression of men and the disregard of human 
rights. Four years ago, this crime was meditated, but not accom- 
plished. The spirit of the South then justified it; and the man 
who had committed it would have been a hero, would have been 
received and honored, as was the ruffian who struck down our 
Senator in his seat in the Capitol. Even now, the assassin who 
has done this deed of blood would be welcomed with triumph, if 
he could find a place where they dared so to receive hitn. There 
can be no doubt that this plan has all along been designed. 
Think what rewards have been offered in the Southern journals 
for the zealot who should do this deed! This is the kind of work 
that suits the base, cunning, cruel, and insolent spirit of slavery. 
It belongs to the same class with the scourgings and the brand- 
ings of women and children; with the wanton murders of the 
duel; with the sending of emissaries to burn the hotels of great 
cities, and destroy the lives of thousands of innocent men; with 
the burning of cities behind them by the rebel leaders, leaving 
thousands to wretchedness, exposure, and despair. All these 



Rev. Charles H. Brigham. 13 

things — this great crime, which to-day startles the nation more 
than any report of a battle lost or a city burned — are the na- 
tural, the necessary issue of the institution which blighted the 
land so long, and ruled with such arrogance and tyranny. Shall 
we not learn from it to hate more heartily this infamous thing? 
Shall it not tell us to cast out for ever, root and branch, every 
vestige of this curse? So long as any tendril remains by which 
this vine can cling to our national life, so long we may expe6t 
such crime as this. Nothing can change the nature of this abom- 
ination. It hesitates at no violence, no outrage, no insult to the 
laws of God and man. Let us, on this new grave of the chief of 
the nation, with an oath as solemn and as deep as that of the 
3^oung son of Hamilcar, vow eternal hostility to this source of all 
evil, in every form and degree; that we will have no rest until it 
is blotted out; that we will have no heed of any sign, promise, or 
prayer that it may make ! Reluctantly our honest ruler brought 
himself to the conviction that the existence of human slavery was 
incompatible with the safety of the land. We see that clearly, 
now, in the blow which has struck down his life, and made him a 
martyr. God grant that this deed of blood may write the death 
of slavery in letters red as of blood all over the land, — in the 
purpose of every resolute and patriotic heart, in the conviction 
and in the determination of all men! We will have no more of 
that social order which uses assassination, and is built upon vio- 
lence. We will have no more of that style of life, which whips 
women, and starves prisoners, and deludes the people to ruin by 
specious falsehoods. Not alone, "Down with the traitors!" shall 
be our cry, but " Down with the accursed thing which has 
brought their treason! down with the thing which has made trea- 
son possible in this free Republic!" We see now how perilous is 
the peace that shall come while any life is left to this enemy of 
our peace. Let us be fixed in this resolution, that no shape or 



14 The National Bereavement. 

hold be left to this iniquity in all our land ! The spirits of our 
martyrs, in the long array which the battles of these years have 
gathered, wait to administer to the nation this vow. It is to 3^ou 
and me, brethren, to all of us, to men and to children. This 
blood will be upon our garments, if we do not wipe off the stain 
from the nation. From every pulpit in the land this day should 
echo the voice, "No peace with the wicked; no peace with that 
which is the source of such wickedness; no peace with that which 
destroys all honor; no peace with that which sends out midnight 
murderers ! " 

And if any thing could complete that union of men of all par- 
ties in the North, which was begun by the assault four years ago 
upon the beleaguered fort in the harbor of Charleston, it would be 
such a crime as this. There can be only one opinion about this 
aft, among all men of fair minds and patriotic hearts. There can 
be only one voice in condemnation of such an a6t, only one feel- 
ing of horror. The journals most hostile to the Government and 
its policy will hasten to disavow this a6t, and will join in the wish 
that summary justice may be done upon these murderers, upon 
all who have had any part in this infamy, whatever their rank or 
station or motive. If there should be any heart base enough to 
approve such a murder, it will not dare to find a voice. Through 
the length and breadth of the land, there will be one utterance, as 
there is substantially but one feeling. This a6l will convert men 
who were only half converted before, will silence cavillers, and 
will bring men of all parties together in the cause of the nation. 
Wranglings will cease before this opened grave: they ought to 
cease here, in such a solemn hour. Men will vie with each other, 
the most conservative with the most radical, in the promptness of 
their devotion to the public welfare. The rejoicings of this last 
w^eek had seemed almost to obliterate party strife: the mournings 
of the coming week will draw in the few that were still keeping 



Rev. Charles H. Brigham. 15 

themselves apart. As, around the private bier, relatives and 
friends meet, forgetting their personal offences in the fellowship 
of grief; so, around this public bier, all differences will be forgot- 
ten in the sense of a common calamity. No Ishmael will utter 
his hatred in the household of mourning Isaac. Those who had 
never praised before will take up the lament, and will claim part 
in the burial. If such an occasion as this cannot silence strife, 
and bring men to be of one voice and heart, certainly nothing 
can. 

And now full justice will be done to that noble man, the chief 
vi6lim of this outrage, who has been so long the mark for abuse, 
detra6lion, and falsehood, but in whom the heart of this nation 
recognized a providential leader. Now that he is done to death 
by wicked hands, with one heart and one voice all will rise up 
to say, that here was a sincere, a wise, an honest, a just, a God- 
fearing man. They will tell, that he loved mercy better than 
power; that he loved his country better than his own fame or 
interest; how beneath this careless manner there was a grave 
and serious heart; how on this plain brow and ungainly frame 
there sat the dignity of a true manhood. Every event in his life, 
from its early struggles to its crowning martyrdom, will unveil its 
significance. They will tell how this Caesar was assassinated, not 
because he had destroyed, but because he had defended, the Re- 
public; not because he had suppressed, but because he had vindi- 
cated, liberty; not as he was gathering new armies to enlarge his 
tyranny and triumph, but as he was about to disband and send 
home the armies that had done their work of saving the State. 
We shall now see that this plain man of the West, of unknown 
lineage, with no gifts of birth or eloquence or fortune, coming to 
the chair of State with no experience of its duties, has proved 
himself the man of all men to save the State ; a better man than 
anv scholar, orator, or martial leader would have been; a second 



1 6 The National Bereavement. 

Washington, entitled as truly as the first to the name of " Father 
of his Country." Violating no law, assuming hastily no preroga- 
tive of place, hesitating long before taking any decisive step, he 
has yet brought this nation through the chasm of its fate, and 
landed it on the hither shore of freedom, of union, and of peace. 
No great crime dishonors his use of the trust w^hich the people 
gave to him, and which they repe^ated with such cheerful consent 
after his work had been tried as by fire. His errors have been on 
the side of kindness, of humanity; have come from his generous 
heart and from his trust in men. The worst complaint of him 
has been, that he had too much pity for the stern duties of com- 
mand; that he could forgive so readily, and was so prgne to 
compassion. Yet, with all this tender heart, he has taken no step 
backward; has recalled no promise; has been driven neither by 
threats, nor won by entreaties, to break any pledge to the people. 
No ruler of any people ever had a harder task; harder in its mag- 
nitude, its obstacles, its complex variety, the momentous results 
depending upon it, its infinite troubles and embarrassments, "fight- 
ings without and fears within," false friends, weak advisers, in- 
competent instruments. Who shall measure such a task? Yet 
history will say he did the task faithfully and well, — history will 
say that here was a successful as well as a faithful ruler. The 
most glorious as well as the most crowded years in all our an- 
nals will be the four years in which the hand of this ruler guided 
the helm of the State. 

That simple name, El Kkalil, the Friend, by which the Arabs 
designate the first of the Patriarchs, is a true designation for 
this our ruler who bore that Hebrew name. He was indeed the 
friend, — the friend of his companions, the friend of the people, 
and the friend of God, as James says the first Abraham was 
called. In all his administrations, in all his messages and letters, 
in his declarations so often repeated, and in the steady tone of 



Rev. Charles H. Brigham. 1 7 



his discourse, there is the pious sense always appearing of depen- 
dence upon the heavenly Friend. How strangely prophetic now 
appears that inaugural word, spoken only a few weeks ago, on that 
lowering day, in front of the Capitol (sad augury of woe soon to 
come), — no hint there of any course that he should pursue; no 
policy marked out for the coming years: but only an expression 
of trust in the Lord; only a vision of the Great Head of all Com- 
monwealths, of the judgments of God, of God leading the peo- 
ple, — "Whatsoever He wills to do, let his will be done"! This 
was a religious man, a religious ruler. That kindness of soul was 
stayed upon a principle of faith. That seeming weakness of will 
was supported by the invisible arm. The trembling magistrate 
leaned upon God; and, when others seemed to see an unsteady 
purpose, he felt beneath him the divine succor, and was strong in 
that uplifting. No place more proper to honor his name and to 
tell his worth than the house of God, to which his summons has 
so often called the worshippers in these years of trial. Again 
and again he has asked us to pray for the nation, and for the 
rulers of the nation; and has been quickened in the blessing of 
these united prayers. Perhaps the last work of his hand may 
have been a call of the nation to thanksgiving and praise; to ren- 
der thanks in their san6tuaries to that Disposer of events, that 
God of battles, who has guided the instruments of his will below, 
and whose right hand and whose holy arm, more than any coun- 
sel or work of men, have gotten us the vi6tory. 

That so good and pure a man, so worthy of the love and honor 
of the nation, should have been taken from us in such a way, im- 
mensely deepens the great lament in the land. We mourn not 
chiefly for the lost ruler, taken at so critical a time of public 
aftairs ; but more for the upright, noble, and patriotic man, whose 
large heart had endeared him to the people as no ruler since the 
firs^t has been endeared. This was the people's President, not by 

3 



1 8 Th( National Bereavement, 



jinv qiKilitios ot' hiob ^vnius, of various pt\s. of commamlinq- will; 
not as tl\o poat phili>sophor who wrote the Declaration v>\ our 
Froodom. i>r as tho intloxiblo ^vnoral who called tlie Eternal One 
to witness thai the Constitution shiuiKl not be luillitieil or ini- 
paireil, — but as the man wluMn the people beliexed in as one 
who would not deceive thei\i. who would not oppress them, who 
would not betray them, lie loved those even who hated him, 
better than the ambitious loaders who drew them astray. He was 
a truer triend to the men who toui^ht ai^-ainst his rule, than the 
bauiihtv lords ot' the lash, who used these poor millions only as 
the tools ot' their pride and their will. And he died really as the 
Saviour died, — on the very anniversary, too, otthe Saviour's death, 
and by a crime hardly less revolting, — with a prayer in his heart 
tor his enemies. What have the last a»5ts of this our ruler been, 
but a comment upon that dying- word of Jesus, " Fatlier, forgive 
thorn, tor they know not what they do".- Well may we borrow 
the wouls of one of our eminent men, and call the ruler who hiis 
so died, in a double sense, " the Saviour of his country." 

Nor mav we omit to speak of the other eminent intended vic- 
tim of this horrid conspiracy, who has stood by the side of his 
ohiet', in these lour years of trying ditficulty, to cheer by his hope- 
fulness, to advise from his knowledge of public ;illairs, and to 
perform all the office of a ready Iriend. How well the former 
ri\^\l gave up disappointment and vexation, to do his part in this 
crisis of the nation! With what moderation and what skill he 
has managx>d those relations of the nation in foreign lands ! saving 
us tK>m added w;vr: magnanimously confessing errors, and making 
Institution, vet alwiU's upholding the country's dignity: daring to 
oppose popular clamor, rather than risk the safety ol the nation, 
*nd the success of its etiorts to quench the tires of rebellion ! 
That the land is s;\ved, is owing in no small degree to the wisdom 
*nd patriotism ol' this optimist, as we have believed him. His 



Rev. Charles H. Brigham. 19 

sanguine heart has only helped to keep up the faith of the people, 
but has not driven him into any errors of folly or rashness. He, 
too, whether he live or die, will have an honorable record, — hon- 
orable, not only in the story of long, various, and distinguished 
services in so many public charges, for more than a generation; 
not only in the ability of his statesmanship, and the success oi his 
diplomacy: but honorable as he has lived down calumnies, vindi- 
cated his prophecies, and won to himself the applause of enemies. 
This man, too, the country cannot afford to spare. Who shall 
stand in his place? 

A great sorrow indeed has come upon us in these outrages; 
and it almost seems that these bright skies, this cheerful sunshine, 
these songs of birds to-day, insult our grief We would have the 
heavens hung with black, as we have draped the doors of our 
houses and the walls of our churches. But, after all, is it not bet- 
ter to take the omen of the sunshine than to brood upon our grief 
and its emblems ? We may be glad, that, heavy as our loss is, it 
is no worse; that, successful as this great crime has been, it was 
not more successful. Other vi6tims were aimed at: and, if all the 
■work had been done, we should have been left without a head for 
our armies, and almost without a Government. The crime has 
defeated its own ends. It will recoil upon those who have ex- 
pected to profit by it. This crowning wickedness is onlv the last 
of that series of follies by which Providence has blinded insane 
men here to their destru6tion. It cannot hinder the triumph of 
the righteous cause. Not falsely was the vision given to our mar- 
tyr, — the vision of freedom established, and a country saved. 
Not in vain has been his service. Not too early did the good man 
die, for the fruition of his hopes and his labors. Our illumination 
has been changed to cloud, our thanksgiving to lamenting; and 
the voice of wailing is heard in the land. But there is no voice 
of despair: the blackness is not that of a cavern or of night, but 



20 



The National Bereavement. 



only of a cloud in the sky: the lament is not a wail, — not the thre- 
nody of those who see no future; but is rather a requiem for the 
dead, the minor chord which goes in the funeral march before the 
full note of triumph. The land is safe, for God is its ruler. He 
leads us to deliverance. We will not trust in any arm of flesh, 
which may be broken; but we will trust in the living God, who 
hath led us hitherto. AVe will go on in the strength of this con- 
vi6tion, that, if we are constant in his righteousness, he will give 
the answer to our prayer, — will give peace, prosperity, plenty, 
a goodlier union, and a more glorious future. 




THE MURDER OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN: 



AN ADDRESS SPOKEN AT A MEMORIAL SERVICE IN THE CHURCH OF THE 
MESSIAH, MONTREAL, ON SUNDAY EVENING, APRIL 23, 1S65 ; 



BY REV. JOHN CORDNER. 



THE lessons we have read this evening are those of the ser- 
vice for the burial of the dead. " Lord, make me to know 
mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may 
know how frail I am."—" Lord, thou hast been my dwelling-place 
in all generations." The solemn strain of these grand old psalms 
has swept the chord of human hearts throughout the Hebrew 
and Christian ages. And they are fresh and strong to-day as 
when Moses wrote and David sang. " Now is Christ risen from 
the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. ... As 
we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the 

image of the heavenly Thanks be to God, who giveth us 

the viaory through our Lord Jesus Christ." This is the jubilant 
utterance of the great apostle, with mind illuminated by the new 
light which Christ brought from on high. And when the darkest 
shadows of death are projeded upon our path, this light gives 
consolation, hope, joy. 

Our present memorial service is but a single refrain of the 
wide-spread expression of grief which the past week witnessed on 



22 The Murder of President Lincoln. 

this continent. On Wednesday last, a funeral took place in 
Washington, which closed the law-courts, banks, and places of 
business in this chief city of British America; invested our streets 
with subdued silence; called out visible tokens of mourning; and 
opened halls and churches, where words of sorrow and sympathy 
might jEind utterance. All this was spontaneous. It was the 
spontaneous " tribute of respect (I quote here from our mayor's 
proclamation) to the memory of the late President of the United 
States, and of S37mpathy with the bereaved members of his family; 
and an expression of the deep sorrow and horror felt by the citi- 
zens of Montreal, at the atrocious crime by which the President 
came to an untimely death." A great crime had been committed, 
which moved the common human heart of this continent to great 
horror, and great sorrow and great sympathy for those more im- 
mediately afflicted. 

On the evening of Good-Friday, — the anniversary of our 
Lord's crucifixion, — Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States of America, was mortally shot by the hand of an assassin. 
This deed will stand throughout historic time as one of the dark 
and tragic events of history; signal and memorable as indicating 
to what enormity of crime defeated hate and rage will drive men. 
The mode of the murder was deliberate and chara6teristic. All 
in front of the private box where the President was seated with 
his wife and friends, — all in front was light and publicity. A 
large concourse of people was there, drawn by the expe6tation of 
seeing their beloved Chief Magistrate, who, on his part, went at 
personal inconvenience, lest the people should be disappointed by 
his absence. The flaming jets of gas shed the brilliancy of their 
light upon the assemblage. In contrast with this, the passage in 
rear of the box was all darkness and secrecy. There prowled 
the assassin marking his vi6lim. Lock and door had been pre- 
viously tampered with, to facilitate the horrid purpose on hand. 



Rev. yohn Cordner. 23 



And when the moment came for the dreadful deed to be done, 
— standing in the darkness behind his vi6tim, — the murderer 
fired the fatal shot. The bullet lodged in the President's brain, 
and instantly deprived him of conscious existence. The physical 
mechanism of the strong frame maintained its a6lion some hours 
longer; but, before eight o'clock next morning, heart and lungs 
had ceased all fun6tion. The earthly life of Abraham Lincoln 
had closed for ever. 

This murder, in the method of its accomplishment, is some- 
what symbolic of the attempt made four years ago on the life of 
the nation. That attempt broke the peace and disturbed the 
order of this hitherto peaceful, industrious, and prosperous conti- 
nent. The same evil influence which moved to that attempt, 
pulled the trigger behind President Lincoln's head, and lodged 
the bullet in his brain. If the head of Queen Victoria stood in the 
way of the accomplishment of its purposes, it would share a like 
fate, if a like opportunity offered. The spirit of the slave power 
brooks no opposition. Habituated to the exercise of arbitrary 
rule, it chafes at the moral and constitutional restraints of a free, 
political, and social order. Hence its armed revolt against the 
pre-existing peaceful political order four 3'ears ago, as soon as the 
result of the ele6lion declared that it should no longer dominate 
the national aftairs with a view to its own extension. The Con- 
stitution guaranteed its sway within existing limits, unmolested 
by interference from without. Dissatisfied with this, it sought 
extension into territories hitherto free, and untainted by slave- 
holding institutions. The slave power, be it still borne in mind, 
revolted ao-ainst the result of an election in which itself took 
a6live part. In the prescribed constitutional way, the nation de- 
cided against the territorial extension of slavery by the ele6tion of 
Mr. Lincoln; and, from the hour this decision was first made 
known, the slave power conspired against the national existence. 



24 The Murder of President Lincoln. 

After the manner of the assassin, it worked in secrecy and the 
dark. Disregarding the sacred obligations involved in high na- 
tional trusts, it made use of its official opportunities to destroy 
the nationality it had undertaken to serve. By stealthy distribu- 
tion of the military stores and naval resources of the nation, the 
slaveholders then in offices of high trust crippled its power for 
self-prote6tion. By various intrigue abroad, the slave power mis- 
represented the a6lual issue at stake, and involved foreign opin- 
ion in one of the most stupendous political delusions of modern 
times. After such manner did it work, in secrecy and the dark; 
and by strategem and device sought to make sure the blow it was 
preparing to strike at the national life. 

Sic semper tyrannis — thus may it always be with tyrants — 
were the words of the assassin of President Lincoln. Sic semper 
tyrannis., — this is the motto of the State of Virginia. All honor 
to Virginia, oldest of the States, mother of many Presidents and 
illustrious men! All honor to Virginia, for the wisdom and ex- 
cellence she has given to the world in so many of her sons! 
Within her borders, Virginia has the elements of enduring great- 
ness; but conjoined with these she had the one element of social 
and political blight, — I mean the institution of slavery. Contact 
with this institution inevitably obscures the moral perceptions, 
and induces a strange inversion of the moral order. Evil is put 
for good, and good for evil; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; 
slavery for liberty, and liberty for slaver}-. Only on this ground 
can we account for the use of the motto in this case. If the irre- 
sponsible control of man over man is not of the nature of tyrann}'', 
I know not what is. If the deprivation of man of his natural 
rights, — his right is his own person, to the fruits of his skill and 
toil, and to the sacred privileges of domestic life, — if the aftual 
deprivation of these rights, through the irresponsible a6t of 
another, is not a6lual tyranny, I know not what is. But the insti- 



Rev. John Cordne7\ 25 



tution of slavery legitimates all this, — so far as its code can legiti- 
mate any thing. This motto, Sic semper tyrannis^ floating over 
the Capitol at Richmond, and over the slave-breeding farms and 
slave-au6tion marts of Virginia, if understood in its true import, 
ought to have struck awe to the heart of every slave-trader and 
slave-owner. But its import was not discerned. Its significance 
was obscured through the distorting moral influence of slavery. 
Hence comes its utterance from the lips of the assassin who, from 
the darkness behind, fired that deadly ball into the brain of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, the emancipator from bondage of four millions of 
human beings. 

The assassination of Mr. Lincoln was not a thought born of 
last week or last month. It was plotted from the beginning of the 
insurre6tion, more than four years ago. It will be remembered, 
that, after much persuasion, he was induced, by friends who had 
taken pains in gathering undoubted information concerning the 
plot, to change his plan and time for proceeding to Washington 
for his first inauguration. His friends had obtained possession of 
fa6ls relating to a plot for assassination, and they would be satis- 
fied with nothing short of a private night-journey in advance of 
the public journey proposed. He yielded in this matter to the 
most urgent solicitation of friends; and thus, in all probability, 
prevented the conspirators from accomplishing their deadly pur- 
pose at that time. He yielded; but would on no account consent 
to go, until he had fulfilled two public engagements on the next 
day, — both of which he averred he would keep, though it should 
cost him his life. It was on one of these occasions, — at the rais- 
ing of the national flag at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, on 
Washington's birthday, — that he uttered these memorable words: 
" If this country cannot be saved without giving up the principle 
involved in the Declaration of Independence, / would rather be 
assassinated on the spot than surrender itP Thus spake Abraham 

4 



26 The Murder of President L incoln, 

Lincoln in the month of February of the year eighteen hundred 
and sixty-one. 

The statements made at the time, and preserved still as record 
of history, inform us that the " chara6ler and pursuits of the con- 
spirators were various. Some of them w^ere impelled by a fanati- 
cal zeal, which they term '^patriotism;' and they justified their a6ls 
by the example of Brutus, in ridding his country of a tyrant. 
One of them was accustomed to recite passages, put into the 
mouth of the character of Brutus, in Shakspeare's play of ^Julius 
Caesar;' others were stimulated by the hope of pecuniary reward." 
Again, it was stated that " the list of the names of the conspira- 
tors presented a most astonishing array of persons high in South- 
ern confidence, and some whose fame is not confined to this 
country alone. Statesmen laid the plan, bankers indorsed it, and 
adventurers were to carry it into efie6f. They understood Mr. 
Lincoln was to leave Harrisburg at nine o'clock by special train; 
and the idea was, if possible, to throw the cars from the road at 
some point where they would rush down a steep embankment, 
and destroy in a moment the lives of all on board. In case of 
the failure of this projeft, their plan was to surround the carriage 
on the way from depot to depot in Baltimore, and assassinate him 
with dagger or pistol-shot." * 

Subsequently an advertisement appeared at the South, making 
fervent appeal to slaveholding States to advance a large sum of 
money to promote the "patriotic purpose" — this was the term 
used — of "reaching" the President of the United States, the 
Vice-President, and Secretary of State, and destroying their lives. 
I do not say that all the men of the South san6lioned such plots, 
or approved of such proposals. God forbid! I am confident 
there are multitudes of men there who would recoil from them in 

* See Rebellion Record, 1S60-61, Doc. 38. 



Rev. yohn Cordner. 27 



horror. But the secret plot and the published appeal were both 
the produ6l of a state of society familiarized with violence and 
disregard of human life through familiarity with slave institutions. 
The a6ls of Preston Brooks and Wilkes Booth were inspired by 
the same social and political ideas. 

The dreadful purpose, then, of assassinating Mr. Lincoln, has 
borne more than a four years' waiting. And now, in its a6tual 
execution, it has horrified the world. Four years ago, Mr. Lin- 
coln was, comparatively, an untried man, — untried, I mean, in 
the great responsibilities which devolved upon him as President 
of the United States, during the most critical period in the history 
of the country. The weight of those responsibilities we can but 
dimly understand. How they pressed by night and by day, amid 
the divided councils of friends and the constant obloquy of ene- 
mies, we can but poorly imagine. Amid the varying fortunes of 
the four years' war, and the complications of foreign diplomacy, 
this hitherto untried man met the dail}^ exigencies of the occasion 
in such manner as to strengthen general confidence in him from 
day to day, and from year to year. The secret of his success lay 
in the simplicity and sincerity of his purpose. The honesty of 
his intention was so clear, that it could not be even suspefted. 
And this honesty of purpose was sustained by a practical sagacity 
truly wonderful. His integrity and wisdom, rooted and grounded 
as they were in a generous nature, quickened and moved by re- 
ligious faith, supported and direfted Mr. Lincoln throughout his 
whole administration of public affairs, and won tor him that 
alwa3's increasing confidence which resulted so decisively in his 
second election. His predominating qualities of character desig- 
nated him as the providentially appointed man for the time. He 
was a self-made man, as the phrase goes. His name indicates 
his English ancestry; and his great perseverance and pra6lical 
qualities of chara6ter indicate fidelity to his Anglo-Saxon lineage. 



The Murder of President Lincoln. 



One of the most critical problems to be solved in his presidential 
career related to the enslaved men at the South, and the treatment 
thereof. As Abraham Lincoln, his honest instin6ls would strike 
the fetters from the slave. As President of the United States, he 
was restrained by constitutional limitations. For these limitations 
he had a due regard, as he was bound to have; but as from time 
to time they became clearly weakened and broken, in law and 
fa6t, by insurgent action, then the honest instin6ts of the man 
found their justifiable expression in the a6ls of the President, who 
was always ready to give the slave the benefit of the breach. 
Step by step, with an honest and pure wisdom, he walked the 
straight and trying path of emancipation. And one thing spe- 
cially noteworthy here is, that he never took a backward step on 
this path. New circumstances might arise, out of which a cry 
would come to reverse the order and withdraw the promise. In 
such cases President Lincoln had only one answer, and that was 
an emphatic refusal. His word was, that no slave set free in the 
inevitable progress of events, by authority of the United States, 
should ever be returned to bondage. His maxim was, " In giv- 
ing freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free." No 
man deplored the war more than he. But the action of the slave- 
holding States in challenging arbitrament by the sword left him 
without choice in the matter. If defeat in a fair election justifies 
armed revolt by the defeated party, then there is clearly an end to 
all political order on this continent. If any question of abstra6l 
right is raised, whether in relation to the individual or the State, 
and if one party in the matter challenges the arbitrament of the 
sword in advance of discussion in the constitutional assemblies 
and tribunals of the land, then there is nothing left for the other 
party but to accept the challenge, and allow the sword to settle 
the question. President Lincoln's heart was for peace, — for 
peace on a permanent basis. But, like all thoughtful observers, 



Rev. yohn Cordner. 29 



he saw that no permanent peace could be had while the institu- 
tion of slavery remained. His second inaugural address is a 
faithful transcript of himself It contains no shadow of boastino- 
no personal reference, no vanity of predi6lion. It is the writino- 
of one who felt himself as in the hollow of God's hand, to be 
used for God's purposes. It is eminently solemn and humane, 
tender and trustful. Here are the two closing paragraphs : 

" Both parties to the war read the same Bible and pray to the 
same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may 
seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assist- 
ance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; 
but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both 
could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. 
The Almighty has his own purposes. ^ Woe unto the world be- 
cause of offences, for it must needs be that offences come; but 
woe to that man by whom the ofience cometh.' If we shall sup- 
pose that American slavery is one of these offences, which in the 
providence of God must needs come, but which, having continued 
through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he 
gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woes due 
to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any 
departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a 
living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope, fer- 
vently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon pass 
away. Yet if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth 
piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited 
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop oi blood drawn with the 
lash shall ""be paid with another drawn with the sword, — as was 
said three thousand years ago, — so, still it must be said, ^ The 
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 

" With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness 
in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to 



30 The Murder of President Lincoln. 

finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to 
care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow 
and his orphans; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just 
and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." 

This last paragraph ought to be engraven on his monument. 

In the midst of life, brethren, we are in death. Death meets 
man at every turn, — a surprise and a mystery. In the high 
places of the nations men fall sometimes by violence, and some- 
times in peace; and the more private circle of the home is 
visited by death's call, and our friends are borne away to the 
tomb. That same morning which witnessed the departure of 
the spirit of President Lincoln from the earth witnessed also the 
departure from this life of a venerable life connected with this 
congregation. No man living could be in more ardent sympathy 
with the cause of emancipation than he was. He had passed 
through a lengthened public life, honored with various high pub- 
lic trusts, and had reached an advanced age which demanded 
repose. But with fourscore 3'ears upon him, he had a heart ten- 
der as a child for the wrongs of the slave. Any reference to 
these wrongs stirred his whole nature with profound and visible 
motion. You know I refer here to the late Mr. Justice Gale. 

Yes; in the midst of life we are in death. Men fall at con- 
spicuous posts, and in the full bustle of a6live public life. While 
the tidings of President Lincoln's death were yet fresh upon us, 
ships from beyond the sea came with further tidings of sadness 
and death. We heard that Richard Cobden, one of England's 
foremost men, had suddenly ceased to be. He had come up to 
London to take part in a debate concerning Canada; but sickness 
seized him, and soon cut short his life. He, too, like President 
Lincoln, was a self-made man, rising gradually from humble 
birth and social obscurity, until, by dint of perseverance, attain- 
ments, and chara6ter, he became one of the most influential men 



Rev. yohn Cordner. 31 



of the nation. He was a representative man of the bone and 
sinew of England, — her intelHgent middle and industrial classes. 
These are the classes who have built up Britain's material power 
and greatness. These are the men who plant her colonies, car- 
ry her wide-stretching commerce, and her traditions of libert}^, all 
over the earth: here bearing fruit in one form; in another place, 
bearing fruit in another form. Canada and the United States are 
both the products of the energy and enterprise of the middle and 
industrial classes of our common mother-country. Mr. Cobden, 
like Mr. Lincoln, was a man of marked sincerity of purpose and 
integrity of chara6ter. Like Mr. Lincoln, he had to bear his 
share of obloquy from flippant and reckless partisan opponents; 
but like Mr. Lincoln, too, he triumphed over these, and has 
bequeathed a name to his country, which his country will not 
willingly let die. His name is intimately identified with some of 
the most important political and economic reforms of the present 
century. He cheapened the food of the operative masses in 
England, after a hard and tedious conflidt with the ignorance and 
selfishness of the agricultural interests and landed aristocracy. 
He lived to see the nation a grateful convert to his enlightened 
principles of commerce. He was invited to join Lord Pal- 
merston as Cabinet Minister; but he declined. He was offered 
rank and title; but he declined. He wanted neither office nor 
title. His desire was that of a sincere and noble mind, to serve 
his countrymen — the great mass of his toiling countrj^men — 
with an honest and disinterested service. And, when the calami- 
ty of civil war befel the United States, his mtelligent acquaint- 
ance with American affairs, and his clear moral vision, preserved 
him from that lamentable delusion on this matter in which cer- 
tain classes of English society became almost hopelessly involved. 
President Lincoln had in him an enlightened and faithful friend. 
He was the consistent supporter of the cause of free labor and of 



3 2 The Murder of President L incoln. 



popular government in the free States, as against all faftitious 
claim to sympathy and support made on behalf of an attempt to 
establish an 'oligarchical Republic founded on slave labor. His 
voice did as much as any other man's to keep the masses of the 
English people right on this great subje6t. He was, beside, the 
steady advocate of international peace. He had faith in Chris- 
tianity as a religion of peace. Sixteen years ago, it was my 
privilege to meet him as a delegate to the Peace Congress then 
held in Paris. Then and there, I listened to his calm, cogent, 
and convincing speech on the main topic of the Congress. I do 
not know in what form he would have written his religious creed. 
But his expressed maxim was, " You have no hold on any man 
who has no religious faith." There was no narrowness about 
his religion. It was broad in its sympathies, and pra6tical in its 
aims. He said he liked the Unitarians, "because they did not 
make their faith and works distinct." And, speaking as I do from 
a Unitarian pulpit, I may be pardoned for alluding to the fa6t, 
that Richard Cobden first tried his power as a public speaker in 
the Cross-street Unitarian Chapel Room in Manchester. And 
when he wanted help in any good cause, as he was heard to say 
many 3^ears afterwards, he knew he could always rely on the 
Unitarian young men of that city. When Richard Cobden, the 
son of a Sussex farmer, died, one of England's genuine noblemen 
passed away. When he died, the cause of human freedom and 
progress lost one of its most enlightened friends and devoted 
advocates. 

In the midst of life we are in death. On the seventh day of 
this present month of April, the grave closed over the mortal 
remains of this conspicuous representative Englishman. Just one 
week afterwards, on the fourteenth day of this same month, an 
assassin's hand brought death to a conspicuous representative 
American. Abraham Lincoln and Richard Cobden, names fa- 



Rev. John Cordner. 33 



miliar in two continents, no longer represent living men. Both 
have passed aw^ay from the scene. Yet, from a human point of 
view, how needful to their two nations were these two men! 
Both were lovers of freedom. Both were friends of peace. 
Each in his own nation was a pledge of peace toward the other 
nation. The removal of these two men about the same time is a 
notable and startling faa in the order of Divine Providence, — a 
faa, solemn, inscrutable, admonitory. How shall we interpret 
this double dispensation of death? And what use shall we make 
thereof? Brethren, the times are critical. War exists on this 
continent; and the spirit which breeds war is unhappily too rife 
here and elsewhere. What then? Are we not bound to look 
soberly and devoutly at passing events? And, as we stand at 
this hour by the freshly closed grave of Richard Cobden, and 
behold the murdered body of Abraham Lincoln passing along, 
amid a nation's wail, to its tomb, shall we not pray, and put our 
prayer into effort, that the two great and kindred nations, of 
which these two men were such conspicuous representatives, 
shall remain in amity and at peace each with the other? Every 
true friend of either nation must desire this, and can desire 
nothing but this. And all such persons should have a clear 
understanding of their duty at this junaure. The governments 
of the two countries are friendly and peacefully disposed. The 
most recent intercourse between our Qiieen's representative at 
Washington, and the new President of the United States, indicates 
a spirit of mutual friendliness, which goes beyond the coldness of 
mere formality. But, in contrast with this friendly temper of the 
two governments, we cannot but notice the unfriendly temper of 
certain classes of persons on both sides of the frontier line. By 
whatever name they are called on this or the 9ther side, how 
different soever may be their origin on one side or the other, or 
apparently opposite their present party conneaions, their temper, 

5 



34 The Murder of President Lincoln. 



in this regard, is the same; and by their fruits they are known. 
Their purpose, jointly and severally, whether a6ling in concert or 
in seeming confli6t, is to foment international strife, and fan the 
flame of -ill-will. Their organs of expression abound with abuse 
of the United States on the one side, and of Great Britain on the 
other. Various motives prompt on the one side, and the other; 
but the thoughtful and clear-seeing eye will generalize the whole 
under one order of enemies to the true interests of both coun- 
tries. 

The day of peace was just dawning on this continent, when 
the assassin's deed threw a cloud of darkness over the rising 
dawn. But God rules. The rising day-spring of peace, I trust, 
will not be permanently clouded. I look with hope for the 
ofradual restoration of order on this continent. But we must not 
be impatient, but bide the time of the Supreme Disposer. Mean- 
time, as citizens of a Christian land, and still enjoying peace, let 
us follow after the things which make for peace, and wisely cher- 
ish the temper thereof The changed situation of the parties to 
the present war will possibly lead before long to a changed atti- 
tude on the part of the maritime powers of Europe. Diplomatic 
questions may possibly arise out of the past; but none ought to 
lead to farther war. So far as Great Britain and the United 
States are concerned, I will venture to say, that no question can 
arise which ought not be settled amicably by commissioners 
mutually chosen. If this cannot be done, then I must blush for 
the Christianity and civilization of the English-speaking races of 
men. The news of President Lincoln's assassination will cause 
a shock of horror in Europe, as it has done in America. That 
murder is a blow which tells not merely on one man or one 
government, but on every man and every government. What 
man's life is safe, what ruler's life is secure, if the assassin can 
find his way behind him in the dark.'* As we stand in the present 



Rev. yohn Cordner. ^^ 



shadow of this great calamity, may our hearts be moved to 
deeper horror of that evil temper w^hich- urges to crime. And, 
as death presents itself to our notice from time to time, — some- 
times in quiet, and sometimes in startling form, — may we be 
moved to consider afresh the sanctity and significance of the life 
which God has given us to live! 

Christian Inquirer, May 27. 




'^r^ 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN : 

A SERMON PREACHED TO HIS SOCIETY IN BROOKLYN, N.Y. 

BY JOHN W. CHADWICK. 



EccL. iv. I : " Behold the tears of such as were oppressed." 

A FORTNIGHT since I went away, and left you with a joy 
upon your faces that was all too deep for words. To-day, I 
come again, and find you smitten with a grief too sad for human 
hearts to hold. I trust that God would have permitted me, in case 
I had been with you when this terrible calamity came thundering 
down into your common life, to speak, not altogether foolishly, 
according to your sorrow and your need. I trust, beside, that 
your own hearts have prophesied how hard it was for me not to 
be with you. It may be that I could have helped you just a 
little. But you would have given to me a great deal more than I 
could have bestowed. And if, to-day, my words but faintly echo 
that which your sad hearts keep on complaining, will you not try 
to feel that they would have been better spoken, if, first, I could 
have seen the meaning of this sorrow written upon your faces, or 
felt it quiver through the trembling grasp of your right hands ? 

" Behold the tears of such as were oppressed." Shall I tell 
you why I took this sentence for my text? It was because I felt, 
that, when the news of Abraham Lincoln's death should find 
its way into the streets of Charleston and Savannah, into the tents 



Rev. John W. Chadwick. 37 

of colored regiments, into the cabin of the planter, and the brain 
of Robert Small, tears would arise, from hearts all bruised and 
shattered, into eyes already dim with other tears, not sorrowful, 
more hot and scalding than ever mother shed upon the death-bed 
of her earliest born. Not forgetting any other sorrow whose 
offerings will be wreathed about his memory, I could but feel 
that the enfranchised negro of the South would twine for him the 
darkest cypress and the brightest bay. I would not be unjust to 
any of the countless multitude who mourn his swift departure. 
One's brain needs not to be badgered ere he thinks how much he 
was beloved. I take it that your shrouded streets but faintly 
symbolize the utter darkness of your inward woe. And I respe6l 
all these attempts which men and women make to help and com- 
mune with each other. It is quite terrible to see your marts and 
custom-houses draped so darkly and so heavily. It is altogether 
sweet and tender and beautiful to see the bits of blackness that 
the poor and starving and half-naked denizens of this and yonder 
city put out from their windows, even in narrow courts and 
crowded alleys, where only God, perhaps, can look upon them. 
I doubt not that these bits of crape and muslin help these poor 
wretches, from whose dingy homes they flit so drearily, to forget 
themselves a little, and that they keep away the devil for a day 
or for an hour. This is their recompense. Their loss, which 
they do not begin to understand, is gain to them in some such 
way as this. And what a change upon your splendid thorough- 
fares ! How bright they were with banners scarcely a week ago ! 
It was a feast of resurrection; and now it is as if the risen Lord 
had gone back into his tomb again. It made me shudder, when I 
came upon them suddenly a day or two ago. But what was all 
the crape, and what were all the drooping flags, and all the 
reverent devices, to the sad faces of the listless throng? And 
what were these to the sad hearts that tried in vain to symbolize 



38 Abraham Lincoln, 



their bitterness ? Is it too much to say, that never in the annals of 
our modern Hfe was there such deep and unafFedled sorrow? 
The death of Everett, of Harrison, of Webster, furnished no 
parallel. No more did that of the first Washington. To-day, 
the second, snatched so suddenly away, eclipses him, and every 
other, with the majestic sorrow that he leaves behind. 

It happened that the love accorded to this man admitted of no 
geographical distin6lions. It came from every quarter of the 
world, and from men of every nation and condition. I will not 
speak for his own land; but I am certain that in other lands his 
fame, ere long, will outrun that of Washington. I doubt not, 
that, in every nation of Europe, there are men and women to-day 
who pray God that they may live to see that face, which even we 
shall see no more for ever. How sad the bravest of the French 
will be, that he has not outlived the incubus which is upon their 
bosoms! Alas that Garibaldi could not have looked into those 
deep eyes, that were so beautiful that they will haunt me with 
their witching tenderness until my dying day! Pity, that the 
grandchild of that chief, who bears our Chieftain's name, could 
not have kissed his broad, pale forehead, though it had been but 
for a single time! And do you imagine that his name was never 
whispered in German brotherhoods and Austrian homes, if homes 
they can be called? The Swiss guide talks about him to the 
traveller. I have heard the echoes of his fame from the Valley 
of El Ghor, and from Jerusalem. It is marvellous, you say, that 
this man should have been so greatly loved, while yet so little 
known. No: it is not mai-vellous; for the whole man was of a 
piece. And upon the least hint it was as easy to constru6t him, 
as for the geologist to constru(5t completed organisms from a 
single bone. There was not a rotten thread, not a bit of shoddy, 
in the whole man. Was any thing good, it was all good. So 
that to know him but a little was to love him well. But to know 



Rev. John W. Chadwick. 39 

him well was to love with an almost infinite affe6lion. And to 
have known him much or little is to mourn his loss as if he were 
indeed our father, and to curse the day that ever treason raised 
its bloody hand against a life so fair. 

And yet the tears which fall upon the dusky cheeks of the 
enfranchised slave are better worth beholding than any tears 
which stain your cheeks, or flow from fountains far away across 
the sea. They shall be more to him in heaven than those which 
strong men shed against their will ; more to him than even the 
gentlest tears of womanhood. But they shall not fall and sting 
as other tears which must be shed sooner or later. For such 
will fall like hissing coals upon the cheeks that have not blushed 
when the false tongue beneath shot out its base and wicked slan- 
ders, which went like poisoned arrow^s into a great, tender soul, — 
and yet a soul that was so sweet, that it could quench their poi- 
son. And when they, who made these arrows out of hate, and 
dipped them in the essence of obscenity, shall know at whom 
they shot them, and how perfe6l his forgiveness was, theirs shall 
be grief and misery indeed. There can be no sorrow like this 
sorrow. Other than this, there is no sorrow like the black man's 
own, — at once so rich and full and tender. 

With what awful suddenness did this blow descend, even 
upon us who thought that we had passed beyond the stage where 
men can be surprised ! With what tenfold horror, then, it must 
be fraught for those whose only life, as yet, is that of sense and 
feeling! On the morning of Saturday, the 15th April, I stood in 
Zion Church, in Charleston, a larger church than Mr. Beecher's, 
and from two to three thousand of these emancipated ones were 
there assembled. And when the name of Lincoln was uttered in 
that presence, it was greeted with such exhibitions of reverence 
and love as I never saw before. The cheers that went up from 
that multitude went up from the heart. I wish, my friends, that 



AQ Abraham Lincoln. 



you could have been there. They prayed; they sung; they 
danced for very joy. They hugged their dusky children to their 
bosoms in the very ecstasy of pleasure and content. Their whole 
frames trembled w^ith emotion. And I said to myself, " Oh that 
Lincoln might know of this!" And he did know of it. "Oh 
that he were here! " I said; and he was there. For, on that very 
morning, his soul had put away the chains of fleshly limitation; 
and the uncouth form was lying stiff and cold, where slavery had 
stricken it. The genius of rebellion had done its worst upon the 
nation's gentlest, bravest, best. 

And now I keep on thinking how it would have been, if this 
tale of g-odless murder had been told there in that cursed and bat- 
tered city to that waiting multitude. Surely it would have frozen 
their poor hearts. It would have burdened them with a sense of 
unutterable horror and despair. For they cannot rise to any thing 
impersonal. They deal with individuals. Even their God is one. 
They recognize no providential order, — only its instruments and 
its effe6ts. They are free, and " Massa Lincoln " made them so. 
He was their Christ and their deliverer. And their old enemies 
have crucified him. God help them when they hear of this! 
God grant it may not goad them to a swift and terrible revenge! 
They have borne and forborne so long, may the kind Heavens 
decree that they be still, as ever, merciful to them that have no 
mercy! But, oh! how swift and strong and terrible will be the 
flood of their emotion! How fierce will be their agony! how 
cold and hard their disappointment! And again I say, God help 
them! And do you work with him. 

1 believe that this is the only providential way in which you 
can be reconciled to this supreme aflliftion. If you stand silently 
apart, and brood upon this a6l of the assassin, and the dear life it 
has destroyed, what shall keep your tired brain from distra6lion, 
your poor weak heart from fierce rebellion } You must forget 



Rev. yohn IV. Chadwick. ■ 41 

3^ourself, and all the circumstances of this most foul and most un- 
natural murder. Compare the black man's sorrow with 3^our 
own: go and behold the tears of the oppressed. You must live 
for them as did that martyred one whose memory you revere. If 
need be, you must die for them as he did. You must go to these 
poor wanderers, and wipe away the tears that shut them out as 
with a blinding mist from all things heavenly. And it may come 
to pass, that you shall know that this good man died for 3^ou also. 
The consciousness of carrying out his lofty purposes shall take 
up its abode in you. And this shall be your recompense. Your 
loss shall be as gain to you, and your sad heart shall be comforted, 
if to this end you look about you, and " behold the tears of such 
as were oppressed." 

But come and ponder lovingly with me the life and chara6ler 
of this dear friend of God's eternal justice. There is something 
very worshipful about him, when you consider merely his concrete 
appearance, that which he manifested to the world. His steady 
progi'ess upward, through a thousand hindrances and bars and 
terrible privations, to the highest point of influence and esteem. 
One might talk for hours about the obstacles which he encoun- 
tered and as often overcame. It was his task, as it is every man's, 
to hew from out a mass of shapeless stuft' a name, a character, an 
influence. But how many find their marble ready and their tools 
at hand! It was not so with him. He was obliged to quarry his 
material, and to fashion his tools. But, working diligently, he 
came at length to shape colossal forms, whose merit shall insure 
him universal admiration. And this, I say, was very worshipful. 
Yet it might not have been so. For other men have raised them- 
selves, by slow degrees, from deeper valleys to more lofty heights 
of civil power and glory. And 3'et they are not admirable in any- 
way. And why? Because their end was self. Because they 
bent God's opportunities into a refuge for their own conceit. 

6 



42 Abraham Lincoln. 



When they might have built these into his altars, the}' built them 
into thrones, that they might sit upon them. And they marked 
the stages of their journey upward with false beacons and with 
lying monuments. Has not the progress of Napoleon III. been a 
progressive masquerade? Has he not been a liar and a cheat 
from its beginning until now? Our Chief Magistrate not only 
raised himself to noble eminence, but he did this with the appli- 
ances of simple justice. Try him by the standard of success, and 
he does not fall a whit below it. You cannot tind in history a 
more successful life. And yet it was so through no trick or sub- 
terfuge. He walked over every inch of the ground. He forded 
every stream that crossed his way. He rode in no man's carriage. 
He burdened no man's shoulders. And then, for crown and cul- 
mination, no sooner did he find himself on any height of honor, 
than from that height he hurried back to seek for any who, per- 
chance, had been less fortunate, and point for them the way. No 
sooner did he win a gift, through prayer and struggle, than he 
fain would share it with some brother soldier in the ranks of 
mortal weakness and temptation. So much for his outward life, 
— a great success, — and as such consecrated to great purposes. 
For this reason, come upon it where you will, it is significant. 
At every point of his circumference, there were springs connect- 
ing with the central power and beauty of his soul. The least a6l 
had the flavor of the greatest; and it was as natural for him to 
strike oft' four million fetters at a blow, as for him to leave his 
Cabinet to talk with any soldier's wife, and answer her petition. 
And his words were deeds also. He never wrote a letter or a 
message*, and he 'never made a speech, which did not contain 
something that was fine and memorable. Some of his sentences 
are like children's prayers, and some of them are as sturdy as the 
blows he dealt in when he swung his axe upon the border. Some 
of them soothe like ointment; but anon they pierce like a two- 



Rev. yohit W. Chadwick, 43 

edged sword. But he was very chary of them. And hence, no 
doubt, the world will cherish them the more. For upon every 
thing he said or did he stamped his inmost self, as with the signet 
of a king. And the motto of that signet was the name of God. 

The form and substance of this man were so related, that to 
speak of one necessitated mention of the other. True, it were 
easy to abstra6t success from every thing beside. But the mo- 
ment that I spoke of his success as being beautiful, I had to tell 
you why it was so, and speak of his sincerity. I had to say that 
he was honest in the methods of his greatness, and that its end 
was not himself, but human love and helpfulness. I think that 
he would have preferred to work in a more humble sphere. He 
hated din and bustle. He had no taste for pomp and circum- 
stance, and he dearly loved the quiet of his home. But he found 
himself to be a providential man; and thereupon he put his hand 
in that of the unseen fate and providence, and let it lead him as 
it would. And it led him into toil more hard, into anxiety more 
terrible, than any other man has wrought or suffered in these lat- 
ter days. But he did not grumble; he did not complain. He 
made no doubt that God knew what was best for him. His hon- 
esty and his benevolence were equal to the largest application. 
They widened with the greater need and opportunity, — the one 
into justice, the other into universal sympathy. 

But, anon, it came to pass that this deep-eyed and tender- 
hearted man, who had been schooled on wooded slopes and prairie 
solitudes; whose teachers had been want and deprivation; still 
somewhat rough and crude and angular, — became a potent, ener- 
gizing force. He compelled respeft from such as would not 
grant it willingly. One by one the voices of detraction ceased. 
Lord Lyons goes away regretting that the President is not more 
utterly respe6ted and admired. Wise men across the sea delib- 
erately write his name high up with Hampden's, Cromwell's, 



44 Abraham Lincoln. 



Washington's. He controls a Cabinet, every man of which sur- 
passes him in culture and experience. He thanks them for their 
advice; he is anxious for their opinions: but he never substitutes 
them for his own. Their discords do not trouble him; or, when 
they do, he drops the offending member as quietly as the tree 
drops down its ripest apple in the fall. He has ruled this people 
as it has not been ruled since Andrew Jackson's time, yet not in 
Andrew Jackson's arbitrary way. He ruled by force of charader, 
and not by force of will. He did it quite unconsciously. He 
thought that he was looking up to Mr. Seward. But it was cer- 
tainly an illusion, and Mr. Seward did not think so. And, before 
his death, the traitors of the South honored him with their hatred, 
and acknowledged that he was not to be despised. There is no 
doubt, but that he lived to be the vital head of civilization in 
America, and freedom in the world. 

Now, it is very plain that this fine potency did not come of 
honesty nor of benevolence. They were its rich and beautiful 
adorning. It was not in them to beget a child so strong. At 
best, they were the conditions of its growth. They were not the 
cause of it, and it is that which we are seeking. Honesty and 
benevolence will commend a man to God; but we are more ex- 
acting. We do not bow and kneel when these exist apart from 
other qualities. What were the sources, then, of this man's con- 
stantly increasing power? I do not find them hidden in the 
crannies of his brain. He did not prevail by dint of intellectual 
superiority. I know that he was sharp and keen. He was not 
apt to be illogical. He had a passion for destroying sophistries. 
But these were any thing but rare endowments ; and as for fancy 
and imagination, he had none; and for insight he was not remark- 
able. His throne was never built on intelle6lual foundations. It 
rested on his faith and resolution. His resolute determination 
was only equalled by his. perfeft trust. These gave him that 



Rev. yohn W. Chadwick. 45 

magnetic force which we denominate chara6ler, and constituted 
him a power. 

But the operation of his will was as quiet and as irresistible as 
that of any natural law. There was no fuss and demonstration. 
He made his soul a sacrifice for sin. He pledged himself to God 
to make an end of this rebellion. He never doubted that he 
should accomplish his desire. He never dreamed of being balked 
in his intention. He felt the weight of all this struggle upon his 
own heart; and, if he could have lifted it, he would not have done 
so. So that, when he had carried it four years, the nation entered 
into his thought, strange as it was, and allowed him, as a privilege, 
to bear it still. And not until the special task which he accepted, 
of crushing armed rebellion, had been fairly done, was heaven 
thrown wide open to receive him. Beyond that point his spirit 
seemed to halt. His theories of reconstru6tion did not satisfy 
himself An awful prescience haunted him, that other hands would 
have to manage that. God only knows how many daggers have 
been blunted against the iron mail of his resolution. There is 
nothing which can hedge a man about like a strong purpose; and 
so he went everywhere, armed in this simple way, assured that 
naught could harm him, if he did not harm himself This sturdy 
resolution was of itself enough to make him teem with power. 
But to this he added faith. 

I mean by this, that he was always open to the infinite; that 
he was expe6lant, and ready to be constantly corre6led and re- 
vised. He never settled down into the ruts of dogmatism, refus- 
ing to be stirred. It is very strange, if that other which I said of 
him was true, and this also. But so it happened. And it was a 
thing which hdippens scarcely once a century. It was the means 
of his salvation, this perfect faith in God, united with a will to 
carry out the dictates of his inspiration. For the Eternal Provi- 
dence does not give its talents unto those who bury them. No 



46 Abraham Lincoht. 



wonder, then, that he was always placid and serene. Resolved 
upon his work, and confident that God would give him strength 
according to his day, why should he not have been? But he 
knew the price of wisdom, and he lived accordingly. He was 
an optimist; but he knew well enough that it is God who worketh 
in us, both to will and do. He did not think that God's work 
would go on, if his own work, and yours and mine, stopped short, 
or even flagged. Therefore, he made the most of all the faculties 
and means at his command. The mental movement of the man 
was very slow; and yet it made good distances, what with the 
sense he had of constant oversight and certain ultimate reward. 
Before, the glorious future beckoned him. The Holy Spirit 
pricked him from behind. 

It was this grand and lofty fatalism which preserved him, 
when the shafts of treasonable and partisan abuse fell thickest all 
about him. He accepted these things, with no end of care and 
pain and misconception, as necessary parts of his condition. 
There was the task; and there was God who set it. Every thing 
else was worse than vanity compared with these. But it is very 
plain, that he was not indifferent to the cruel blows that were 
levelled at him every day. Instead of this, he was as sensitive as 
any child. But he had made up his mind what to expeft before 
he started; and, in the silence of his own heart, he had prepared 
himself for all contingencies : — 

"As if the man had set his face, 
In many a solitary place, 
Against the wind and open sky." 

And when great men and small met him, at any time or place, 
they found him perfect in his poise and self-containment; they 
felt his power; they knew that there was plenty of it in reserve; 
and, though they did not stop to analyze, they were assured that 



Rev. yohn W. Chadwick. 47 

its beginning went clear down into the heart of nature, into the 
Hfe of God. And they bowed themselves before him; and, going 
on their wa}', told all men everywhere how excellent he was. 
And so, in time, he came to be the power which I assert, — the 
living head of that great bod}" which we call the Time. 

But he was not only a centre of force: he was a centre of 
attra6tion. And, as 3'et, I have said nothing w^hich accounts for 
this. I have said why men honored and respected him, not why 
they loved him as, perhaps, no other man was ever loved, save 
by a wife or mother. He might have been as faithful and deter- 
mined, as honest and as just, as I have said he was, yet not have 
been beloved. For such qualities must be intelleftually appre- 
hended, seen ; and it is a proverb, that love is blind. Yet can we 
turn to all the world, and say, " Behold, how we loved him!" 
It was because we felt his S3'mpathy with us, and knew that, if 
we went to see him, even the humblest of us, he would take us 
by the hand as cordially as if we had a rightful claim upon his 
time or his affe6lion; it was because of his naturalness and free- 
dom; because he was so void of any thing like affectation or 
conceit. He w^as always himself; and it seemed never to occur 
to him, that he might be something different: although, as such, 
he was no carpet-knight, no drawing-room celebrity. He lived 
so deeply, that he lived unconsciously. And, in his w^ay, he was 
as easy and as gracious as my lord. We loved him, too, because 
he w^as so kind; because he would listen while the common 
soldier told the story of his real or fancied WTongs, or while his 
wife or mother prayed for his furlough or discharge. And w^e 
remember him upon the field of Gettysburg, and at Captain 
Worden's bedside; and we never shall forget his agony, when 
Hooker was. discomfited. And then we loved him for his sweet 
and happy disposition. Was ever any one burdened so heavily, 
and yet so genial and so pleasant under all cares ? I doubt not 



48 Abraham Lincoln. 



that he bridged with laughter many a swelling stream. I am 
glad that it was so. This quality in him has often been con- 
demned. But why? Was not his countenance weary and hag- 
gard enough to suit the most exa6ling fancy ? Easier than not, 
he might have weeded out this quality of mirth. And then he 
might have gone sheer mad, just for the lack of it. But no: 
he had a work to do; and how was he straitened until it was ac- 
complished ? Thank Heaven that he could sometimes shift the 
burden just a little! He never laughed at misery. He never 
thought that slavery was a joke. And it was a providential 
blessing to us all, that there was this sunny exposure to redeem 
his life from being altogether dark and troublesome. 

And now this man, in whom were mixed so many elements of 
strength and beauty; whose life was so successful, and so truly so; 
whose martyr-death so fitly sealed his providential work; whose 
faith and resolution made him such a force; whose genial v^^armth 
and kindly glow endeared him to us all, — is vanished from the 
earth for ever. His lifeless form still journeys slowly through the 
country which he loved; but the truthful lips are silent, and 
the kindly heart is still. And is he lost to us and to the world? 
Shall we miss, for ever miss, the noble qualities that made him 
what he was? No, no! If the sin-blackened and incrusted soul 
of him that robbed us of his mortal presence thought that it would 
be so, how vainly did he reckon! He is ours in death, more than 
he was in life! I know how pleasant and how sweet it would 
have been, if he could have remained with us until brooding 
peace and universal freedom had settled down to bless the weary 
land. You should have carried your children and your chil- 
dren's children from afar, to see the face of him who broke the 
bondman's fetter in the name of God. The joyful tears of such 
as were oppressed should have bedewed the threshold of his 
simple home. And now it cannot be. And yet it was expedient 



Rev. yohn W. Chadwick. 49 



for us that he should go away. He was caught up into the Eter- 
nal Presence just when he seemed to us more holy, pure, and 
gi-eat, than ever in his life before. There is a moment when the 
fever turns; there is a day when languages begin to lose their 
purity of form; and there are times in life when great men stand 
upon the topmost peaks of possible achievement, and to proceed 
another step is to go downward on the other side. Better a 
thousand times ascend from hence, at once, into the courts of 
memory and fame. Better to crystallize, ere yet the subtile 
processes have carried them one step beyond their highest point 
of influence and power. And so the hand which murdered 
Abraham Lincoln insured his earthly immortality. They tell, 
that, on the eyeballs of the slain, the murderer leaves a pi6lure of 
his face. It is a hard fancy. But it is beautiful to think that he 
impresses on our hearts the memory of him at whom he strikes. 
So it is with us now. Did you never think, when looking at the 
sunset clouds, " Oh that they might linger there against the 
west, just at their perfe6lest, until the painter painted them for 
you, and for his own perpetual joy".'^ And see! upon the back- 
ground of this crime, so terrible, the sundered life stands out in 
all its red and purple glory, — stands fixed for ever at its best; 
and all the world can seek to emulate the sweep and majesty of 
its proportions. Indeed, we have not lost him! 

Would you have me speak of the poor fool, who thought that 
he should strike at freedom when he struck at freedom's tried 
and faithful friend? It would not profit you. Arrest him, if you 
can. Punish him as you may. And what of that? You cannot 
punish him according to the measure of his crime. 

" There is a peak of guilt so high, 

That those who reach it stand above 
The sweep of dull humanity, 

The trail of passion and of love. 



50 Abraham Lincoln. 



The clouds that dim the lower heaven 

Touch not the mountain's hoarj crown ; 
And on the summit, thunder-riven, 

God's lightning only strikes them down." 

You cannot visit him with deeper condemnation than that 
which he adjudges to himself. When you have done your worst 
upon him, then God will deal with him. Such crimes would 
have to go unpunished, were it not for Him. Our pains and 
penalties are light indeed for such transgression. But there are 
infinite resources. The bar of heaven is not a rhetorician's 
fancy. 

It was no single man that murdered him whose loss we mourn 
to-day. It was an institution, stained already with the life-blood 
of a million saints. It was an institution; the same that mur- 
dered Lovejoy and John Brown ; the same that struck at Sumner 
from behind his back; and lit the fires of this rebellion, that it 
might burn up the hope of freedom and democracy. It was not 
to be. The flying sparks kindled Jhe North into a fiercer flame, 
which has well-nigh destroyed the godless institution. I dare to 
say, that it was God's intention, when he permitted this last a6t 
of damning infamy, that it should be as fuel to that flame which 
burned so hot already. Its meaning is not vengeance upon any 
man, or class of men. It is that, if heretofore we have been 
hacking at the trunk of slavery, we shall now resolve that we will 
tear the very roots' of this vile cancer from the bosom of the land. 
It is that, with your hands upon 3^our hearts, you shall devote 
yourselves with solemn vows to the utter and complete eradica- 
tion of this social curse. Let it breed no longer strife and mur- 
der and conspiracy. 

So shall it come to pass, that he who died upon the day 
when Christ himself was crucified afresh in tearful memory shall 
rise again, as Christ himself arose in the new life of such as 



Rev. John W. Chadwick. 51 

loved him, and obeyed his word. We would not have him rise 
in any other way. We could not find it in our hearts to tear him 
from the rapt embraces of the everlasting peace. 

" His voice is silent in jour council hall 
For ever; and, whatever tempests lower, 
For ever silent; even if thej broke 
In thunder, silent : yet, remember all 
He spoke among jou, and the man who spoke ; 

Who never sold the truth, to serve the hour, 
Nor paltered with Eternal God for power; 
Who let the turbid streams of rumor flow 
Through either babbling world of high and low; 
Whose life was work, whose language rife 
With rugged maxims hewn from life ; 
Who never spoke against a foe. 

And he is gone, who seemed so great ! 

Gone : but nothing can bereave him 

Of the force he made his own 

Being here ; and we believe him 

Something far advanced in state, 

And that he wears a truer crown 

Than any wreath that man can weave him." 

Christian Inquirer, May 4. 




DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN: 

A DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT MILLSTONE, N.J., ON SUNDAY MORNING, 

APRIL 1 6, 1865 ; 
BY REV. E. T. CORWIN. 



Prov. xxi. 30 : "There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord." 



T 



HE astounding Intelligence reached us yesterday, that the 
President of the United States had been shot; and this 
awful faft, with some hasty reflections upon it, is the only theme 
upon which we can fix our minds to-day. 

The first thought is, that it cannot be that our nation has been 
so disgraced. In the times of the old Roman emperors, it was a 
rare thing indeed for one of them to die a natural death. And 
the reason of this was to be found, not only in the ambition of 
others, but in the judgment of God, and the just hatred of the 
people whom they had enslaved and oppressed. They were 
monsters of iniquity and despotism, and aptly described in pro- 
phecy as beasts, because they were the destroyers and enemies 
of mankind, the despisers of the rights of men. In striking con- 
trast, our Chief Magistrate was not the enslaver, but the free- 
dom-giver to men. He was a man whose name will be linked, to 
the end of time, with the great and glorious. Not theories, but 
fa6ts, of accomplished emancipation; looked upon, and truly, as 



Rev. E. T. Corwin. 53 



the man raised up by Providence to conduct the nation to a 
higher, a nobler, a truer position before the world. For we stood 
as a Christian nation, the great representative of Freedom, though 
portions of our land had long been disgraced with the sin of 
slaver}^ But it was at length almost utterly, yea, virtually, abol- 
ished. But just at this time, the one whom we thought raised up 
to carry on this glorious renovation, to consummate tiie great 
truth contained in the first sentence of our Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, "that all men are born free and equal," — such a one, 
not the tyrant, but the friend of the oppressed, and the freedom- 
giver to the slave, has fallen by the hand of the base assassin. 
The land may well go in mourning for the loss of such a one, and 
for grief at such a disgraceful deed. Peace was just dawning 
upon our desolated country. Only the day before, the orders had 
gone forth, that no more men were needed for the war. The 
bright bow of promise was seen spanning the skies. Thanksgiv- 
ings from innumerable hearts were ascending to God. The na- 
tion was saved from the blood-stained hand of the slaveholders' 
rebellion. It was purged of its great crime. In the words of 
the departed, " Perhaps for every drop of blood drawn by the 
lash, another had been drawn by the sword." And he whose 
heart was foremost in the great work which God was accom- 
plishing for man; he whose mind had been racked with many 
a sleepless night because of a natioii^s burdens laid upon it, who 
had a task of difficulty and responsibility and world-wide inter- 
est, such as perhaps no other man ever had, and who was at 
length thanking God for a nation's triumph, yea, the triumph of 
human liberty, and of slow justice through the land, — in the 
very midst of his joy is stricken down by the hand of the foul 
assassin. Oh, how mysterious are the ways of Providence ! 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform." 



54 Death of President Lincoln. 

His ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our 
thoughts. The good and noble and intelHgent of the earth are 
ever working with God, for the triumph of Hberty and righteous- 
ness, according to the best of their abiHty. But suddenly, to 
their utter amazement, instruments which seemed to be so neces- 
sary for the accomplishment of these ends are removed, and 
others substituted to finish the work. Such sudden turns of 
Providence bewilder our minds for a moment. At first, the 
thought of irretrievable disaster flashes upon us. But a little re- 
flection upon the ways of God, and the promises of his word, and 
that the throne of the universe is occupied by the Lord Jesus 
Christ, whose whole business is to raise the poor and the down- 
trodden, and to break the rod of the oppressor, as it exists, and is 
wielded in the first place by the Devil himself, and then by his 
countless agents of high and low degree on earth; as we reflect 
upon the faft, that our Almighty and infinitely benevolent Saviour 
is the Lord of all, and that no event, whether accomplished by 
good or evil instruments, is independent of his wise and holy will, 
— we begin to understand that He who doeth all things well, and 
who sees the end from the beginning, is only accomplishing the 
same grand and holy purpose, for which his people have been 
laboring and praying so long, in a more thorough manner than 
they had designed. For while every Christian and loyal heart 
abhors the foul deed which has been committed, and while their 
eyes help swell the river of tears which this day flows through 
the land, yet, to the man of faith, the glorious cause of Christ 
and humanity is not injured, — no, is not injured, nor is dela3^ed 
for a single day, by the destru6tion of even such a life as that of 
Abraham Lincoln. For all things must work together for good 
to the cause of God, to the cause of right, to the cause of justice; 
and all these, as far as they were contained in national and politi- 
cal events in our land, and indeed throughout the world, were 



Rev. E. T. Corwin. 55 



chiefly centred in him. For these holy causes are greatly involved, 
not only in the revolutions, but even in the politics, of the present 
day. It has no doubt often been true, that politics, when con- 
cerned simply w^ith questions of tariff" and commerce and such 
like things, were fairly open questions for honest Christian differ- 
ences; and often indeed it was no easy thing to decide stri6tly as 
to duty. But every intelligent and unprejudiced man, (but, alas ! 
how much mischief has mere prejudice and partisanship wrought 
in the world!) if he make himself sufficiently acquainted with 
current events to understand them in their great moral signifi- 
cancy, could not fail to see, that, for several years past, a disunion 
(not yet by any means perfe6t, but progressing), that a division, 
like that of the future sheep and goats, has been going on. Right- 
eousness or iniquity, which should prevail? has been the real 
question, though not in just so bald a form. Truth or error, lib- 
erty or oppression, Christ or Satan, — these are the real and simple 
issues in the great political, moral questions of the present day. 
The lines are becoming each year more clearly marked. The 
friends of Christ and of mankind are each year coming more 
closely together. There are, indeed, many of the true friends of 
Christ, by some sad mistake, by want of refle6lion or understand- 
ing, by family connections sometimes, or by want of prayer for 
divine direction, who are yet, alas! mingled with the friends of 
Satan. It seems impossible to understand, how, sometimes, men 
of intelligence and unquestioned piety can take such a false or 
even neutral position. And it is just as true, alas! that many, 
who, by unregeneracy of heart, are the friends of Satan, are 
found in these great political divisions with the friends of Christ. 
But these political divisions will each year become more clearly 
defined. Babylon, in prophetic language, is a name which de- 
scribes the whole policy and organization of the cause of iniquity; 
and to those who should find themselves inhabitants of that 



56 Death of President Lincoln. 

wicked place, that is, the unconscious or unwilling allies of evil, 
to them God speaks in kindness and in love (Rev. xviii. 14), 
" Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her 
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." It is addressed to 
those especially who lived at the time of, and since, the Reforma- 
tion, and who might, by some perchance, find themselves in the 
company of those beasts described in that book, or, in other 
words, in league with ecclesiastical or civil oppression, and conse- 
quent error, in any of its plagues of development. And it is 
because the Church of Christ in general understands these events, 
that the Christian can lift up his head, under apparently the most 
adverse circumstances, and rejoice ; believing, yea^ knowing, that 
the cause he loves so well, not for its own sake merely, but chiefly 
because of its connexion with the great and glorious work of 
Christ, — hence it is, I say, that the Christian, when the standard- 
bearers of liberty are for a moment stricken down, can yet ex- 
claim, " He doeth all things well." For what the prophet says 
of Christ, and therefore of his people, must be fulfilled: "He 
shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set justice in the 
earth." For the cause of right, of liberty, of God, whether con- 
sidered in its more stri6tly religious, or in its more external and 
national aspe6l, must conquer. It is not dependent upon the life 
of one man. It is not dependent upon the lives of even a million 
of the best and most virtuous men now alive. They might all be 
destroyed, and such a cause would only take heart from their 
destruction, and go on with greater success. The blood of the 
martyrs was the seed of the Church. How often did the despots 
of Europe, civil and ecclesiastical, put to death the friends of 
God, and the defenders of human liberty ! But did they kill the 
cause? Oh, no! The cause of truth can never die. Disciples 
arose in their places more numerous than the slain, until the 
thoughts of those martyrs of God and of Liberty crystallized into 



Rev. E. T. Corwin. 57 



our glorious Constitution. And now tliat so great an effort as the 
slaveholders' rebellion, entirely satanic in its origin and nature, 
has been made at its very life, and which has been so greedily 
seconded by the aristocrats and tyrants of Europe, yet could it 
kill this noble life, containing as it does the cause of both God 
and man? Impossible! We see already the rebellion in its death- 
throes. We see the glorious dawn of peace. Hallelujahs are 
ascending from our hearts. And now that the representative man 
of freedom in the West (as the Czar of Russia has so unexpect- 
edly become in the East) has been foully murdered, does it 
injure the noble old cause against which the dragon has already 
launched so many blows? Not in the least. It will prove, as the 
end no doubt will show, a great blessing to the cause. Men may 
die; Satan may let loose his agents upon them: but the cause 
still lives. It is as immortal as our Elder Brother on the throne. 

Universal freedom and brotherhood will only be the more 
surely, and perhaps the more rapidly, accomplished. The gos- 
pel shall more speedily have free course, and be glorified. The 
wrath of man shall praise Him; and the remainder He will 
restrain. 

It is a sad event, indeed, which has happened, — a disgraceful 
event; probably actuated by nothing higher than the plotted 
revenge of a few individuals, at the failure of their bad cause. 
But it is the fool who says, that revenge is sweet. God has said, 
that sin is a bitter thing. The deluded murderer, as well as his 
instigators and accomplices, will, no doubt, soon be in the hands 
of justice, and then in the hands of an angry God. David would 
not kill Saul, when he had him in his power, though Saul was a 
wicked man, and God had specially promised the throne to 
David. But he in his piety declared, " I will not lift up my hand 
against the Lord's anointed." Saul was God's vicegerent on 
earth, as a king, to administer justice among inen, though wicked 

8 



5 8 Death of President L mcoln. 

and unworthy. But here was one, who was likewise God's vice- 
gerent to administer justice and truth, who was literally, what 
every ruler ought to be, no respe6ler of persons; Avho had 
stricken off the shackles from the slave; and yet, alas! by the 
hands of a poor deluded man, who could not raise his mind to 
grasp the glory of the great evolving problems of humanity, 
because he himself was a slave of Satan, — by such a man is the 
noble President, the Great Emancipator, basely murdered. Slan- 
ders and calumnies the good ever expe6l to bear; and these, 
though innumerable, he deemed never worthy a moment's atten- 
tion. But who would have believed (the good President could 
not) that one who called himself an American citizen could 
have been so fiendish as this? But Satan ever overshoots the 
mark. Even the plans of wicked men are under the control of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, the friend of the sinful and the captive. 
Long have the friends of liberty prayed that he would turn the 
counsel of the wicked into foolishness. We have seen how he 
has done this, by permitting the slaveholders to rebel, and who 
have thus destroyed their cherished institution, and put them- 
selves completely in the power of those whom they call their 
enemies, but, in fa6t, who were only the enemies of their wicked- 
ness. And now, by this last most abominable of deeds, they 
have only sunk their cause still lower, and injured it more irre- 
mediably. The departed President's fault, if such it might be 
called, was his extreme leniency, his kindness of heart. For 
look at the terms, which he no doubt approved of, if he did not 
suggest, which General Grant has offered to General Lee. The 
country was surprised at them. And this is but one illustration 
of his whole career. Indeed, many good men feared that he 
might yet endanger the Republic by excessive clemency; that 
the great cause of liberty was in peril from very kindness to its 
foes. But they have murdered this kind-hearted and good man. 



Rev. E. T. Corwin. 



59 



who had done them no wrong; who had fairly been ele6led, by a 
vast majority of the people, a second time; who, by his severe 
labors to save the nation, and to maintain and extend the cause 
of human liberty, was, in very fa6t, spending himself for their 
benefit, and the benefit of their posterity, though, in their blind- 
ness and wickedness, they could not see it. They have murdered 
this man, who would only have been too good to them with their 
restoration to the Union. And now a man of iron sternness 
succeeds him, whose mercy towards the leaders, at least, will 
surely be far less; from whom they may expe6l justice rather 
than mercy. God saw this to be necessary in finishing up this 
great rebellion. He saw that that good and kind-hearted man 
would not be the one for this work; and he has taken him away. 
And, though the first sad news shocked every faithful heart, yet 
it is only in order to secure the triumph, more utterly to destroy 
the evil course. It is only to forward, by other and sterner 
instrumentalities which he had at hand, the great struggle in 
which Christ and his people are engaged. The gospel can never 
have free course, until the t^Tants and oppressors of men are 
destroyed. Liberty is the forerunner of the gospel. The gospel, 
after it had been planted by the apostles, begat liberty, as her 
strong and sturdy son, — the man-child who, ultimately, should 
go before her, to prepare her way. The gospel, pure and true, 
after occasional great triumphs, yet could only, in general, live in 
secret, till her own offspring grew to strength (especially exem- 
plified in our nation), and who, by his strong and herculean arms, 
should strike down the opponents, and say to the heralds of the 
gospel, "Enter in: the way is prepared: proclaim ye the accept- 
able year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God." 
And now a man of iron sternness holds the reins which are to 
secure the cause of liberty and God, and who is to draw the 
rebels back to their proper place in the Union (which they shall 



6o Death of President Lincoln. 

not destroy), or who will mete out to them, if they persevere in 
their wickedness, the just deserts of their crimes. 

The part which Providence designed our lamented President 
to pla}^, he had completed. Little did he or any one think, that 
his work was so near done. But he had fulfilled well his part. 
His name will ever stand by the side of that of Washington. He 
has completed virtually the work which Washington begun. 
We have only, as yet, passed through the introdu6tory chapter of 
our nation's history, during the last few years of which, the noble 
cause has been purged of the dross which necessarily, and to 
their mortification, adhered to it as it came from the hands of the 
fathers. It has passed through the furnace heated seven-fold, 
and must come out purified and refined. No longer will the 
theories and the fa6ts of our government conflict; but, henceforth, 
all who tread the soil of our country will be free men: and thus 
only will our Republic be prepared to take part consistently in 
the yet future confli6l upon the remaining oppressors of mankind 
in other lands. For God undoubtedly intends to use us in this 
pouring-out of some of the latter vials of wrath upon his ene- 
mies. Not only has our war purged us of our chief sin, but has 
drilled us for the greater, not only national but international, 
confii6t, and liberty's universal victory. 

And here it may not be amiss to allude to the religious char- 
acter of our beloved and respe6ted Chief Magistrate. President 
Lincoln is well known to have been a praying man. When he 
left his village home to go to Washington, more than four years 
ago, and his fellow-citizens bade him farewell, as he stood on the 
rear platform of the train, his last words to them were, " Pray for 
me." And did ever man need a nation's prayers more? On the 
morning of his first inauguration, he rose early, and retired to a 
secret place, and prayed that God would enable him to do his 
duty in the great task laid upon him. And yet, perhaps, all this 



Rev. E. T. Corwin. 6i 



time, he was not a Christian. All his proclamations, however, 
seem to be redolent with piety, and far superior, in this respeft, 
to most, if not all, his predecessors, till we come to Washington. 
But, less than a year ago, a man from a Western State had busi- 
ness with the President, and, after it had been transacted, told 
him that he had a question to ask him, at the solicitation of some 
Christian friends. The question was, " Do you love J^ehcs ? " 
TJie President burst into tears, and buried his face in his hand- 
kerchief, and, for a time, could not speak. But, oh! how precious 
to us that we have this record of his religious experience! He 
at length said, " When I left Springfield, I said to my fellow-citi- 
zens, ' Pray for me ; ' but I was not then a Christian. When my 
child died, soon after I entered upon my office, my heart was still 
rebellious against God. I was not then a Christian. But, when 
I walked the battle-field of Gettysburg, and saw the wounded and 
the dying, and felt, that, by that vi6lory, our cause was saved, I 
then and there resolved, and gave my heart to Jesus. / do love 
jfesMsP This is the testimony of his own lips upon his religious 
life; and is it not sufficient? Millions of loyal hearts and of 
freedmen have often prayed that God would bless that man with 
his grace. Often have I prayed in private, and in my family, as 
well as in public, that the faith of Christ might not be lacking to 
him. And could it be, it might well be asked, that so many 
prayers, especially from the thousands of slaves whose freedom 
will ever be associated with his name, — could it be that all their 
prayers could have been unanswered ? This testimony, from the 
President's own lips, proves that they were answered : " On that 
blood-stained field, I gave my heart to God. I do love Jesus." 

We mourn for the man. We hide our faces in shame at the 
awful crime which deprived him of his life. But we will still 
rejoice, as we remember that the cause of God and of liberty can 
never die. Men may die; but it is said of Christ, "And He shall 



62 



Death of President Lincoln. 



live " (Ps. Ixxii.) ; and this is necessarily true also of the cause 
which he represents. The wrath of man shall only hasten in the 
triumph of the cause of truth, and the complete destru6lion of 
the powers of iniquity. But, in view of this solemn providence, 
the pra6lical question is, which let each man ask himself sin- 
cerely, as in the sight of God, and as he will answer it at the last 
great' day, — let each man ask himself, whether, hitherto, in his 
politics on these great moral questions, he has been the servant 
of Christ or of the Devil ? For there is no middle ground. 

Somerset Unionist, Somerville, JV.y., May i8, 1865. 




GOD PUTTETH DOWN ONE, AND SETTETH UP 

ANOTHER: 

A SERMOX ON THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PREACHED IN THE SEA- 
MEN'S chapel, HONOLULU, MAY 1 4, THE FIRST SABBATH AFTER RE- 
CEIVING THE SAD INTELLIGENCE OF HIS ASSASSINATION ; 

BY REV. S. C. DAMON. 



Psalm Ixxv. 7 : " But God is the judge : he putteth down one, and setteth up another." 
John xiii. 7 : " What I do, thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." 

IN the administration of the affairs of this world, God is ever 
doing and permitting things to be done, the reasons for which 
cannot be seen by short-sighted mortals. Such is God's method 
of proceeding, that we are continually compelled to take many 
things on trust. Faith in him is the great lesson which he is 
ever teaching mankind. He has drawn an impenetrable veil 
before our eyes, shutting out the future from our view. "Ye 
know not what shall be on the morrow," or " what a day may 
bring forth." How impressively these scriptural declarations, 
and those of my text, are illustrated by events which have 
recently transpired on the other side of the globe ! All the loyal 
people of that great country, stretching from the shores of the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf to the Lakes, were 
preparing for such a day of thanksgiving and jubilee, as never 
had been witnessed on the Western Continent. The national 



64 God putteth down One, and setteth up Another. 

feeling, which during four years of civil war had been repressed, 
was rising, and about to burst forth in such scenes and shouts of 
rejoicing, as would have made the "welkin ring." The dove 
of peace, which had, during those four long years, been confined 
to the ark, rocked and tossed upon the troubled waters of civil 
strife, political contentions, and cruel war, had now been re- 
leased, and, with the olive branch in her mouth, was winging her 
flight over mountains and valleys, broad savannas and boundless 
prairies. The good news was flashed with lightning speed over 
the land and the world. The dark clouds were rolling away, 
and the sun of the nation's glory was beginning to shine; and the 
rainbow of peace was distin6tly seen spanning a continent, as in 
days of yore, — when, lo! from the receding black clouds of 
secession, treachery, and slavery, there darted forth a fiendish 
arm, holding in its hand an assassin's dagger. The whole scene 
is instantly changed. For a moment, the pulse and heart of the 
nation cease to beat; but, the next instant, there follows a sigh of 
anguish and wail of sorrow. Abraham Lincoln, our beloved 
President, is dead! I do not believe, since the creation of the 
world, so many hearts, in so short a space of time, ever mourned 
over the death of a single human being. There is no disputing 
or gainsaying the fa6t, Abraham Lincoln had gradually been 
winning for himself a place in the hearts of the American people, 
second only to that of Washington, the Father of his country. 
But will not the people now call him the Saviour of the coun- 
try, when the life of the nation was threatened? 

This most tragic event is not an accident; it is not the work 
of chance. We do not live in a world ruled over by blind fate. 
Never before did I realize there was so much force and intensity 
of meaning in those words of our Saviour, " But the very hairs 
of your head are all numbered," and even a sparrow " shall not 
fall on the ground without your Father." I do not think there 



Rev. S. C. Damon. 65 



ever was a public man who recognized more clearly and fully this 
doctrine of God's special providence, than did our lamented 
President. Gathered as we now are in the house of God, on this 
first sabbath morning after having received the news of his death, 
how can I more appropriately employ the usual time allotted to a 
discourse, than by directing your minds to some of those moral 
and spiritual lessons taught by this most sad and melancholy 
event. The telegraphic intelligence which has reached the 
Islands is quite sufficient to disclose the naked fa6ls, but insuffi- 
cient to portray the effe6ls upon the country at large. Under 
these circumstances, perhaps I may be allowed to dwell upon the 
religious features of Mr. Lincoln's character. He was a public 
man, and had been called to occupy a most responsible and try- 
ing public position. He fully realized this fa6l, from the very 
moment that he stepped forth from the sphere of a private 
American citizen to occupy the highest position within the gift of 
his countrymen. His brief address, on leaving his home at 
Springfield, 111., is inimitably beautiful: "My friends, no one 
not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at this part- 
ing. To this people, I owe all that I am. Here I have lived 
more than a quarter of a century; here my children were born; 
and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall 
see you again. A duty devolves upon me, which is, perhaps, 
greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since 
the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded 
except for the aid of divine Providence, upon which he at all 
times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same 
divine aid which sustained him; and, on the same Almighty 
Being, I place my reliance for support. I hope you, my friends, 
will pray that I may receive that divine assistance, without which 
I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. I bid you 
all an affectionate farewell." 

9 



66 God putteth down One, and setteth up Another. 

During the delivery of this short address, the audience was 
much affe6led; and, when it closed, there was the hearty re- 
sponse, "We will pray for "you." During his progress to 
Washino-ton, he uttered similar sentiments at Columbus and 
Steubenville, in Ohio, ever expressing the hope that he should be 
sustained by the prayers of the American people. In this ad- 
dress, we have the key-note to all his subsequent addresses, let- 
ters, proclamations, and public documents. I cannot recall a 
single one in which he did not fully and frankly recognize God's 
agency in the management of the affairs of this world. His 
allusions to an overruling Providence were not in a half-apolo- 
gistic and semi-infidel style, as' if he wished to conciliate the 
feelings of Christians, while, at the same time, he had no ver}' 
clear and definite idea of what he was saying or writing. Read 
his second Inaugural, on the fourth of last March. The staunch- 
est and most orthodox divine could not have given utterance to 
more evangelical doctrines or religious sentiments. He quotes 
and comments upon the very words of our divine Saviour, in the 
eighteenth chapter of Matthew: "Woe unto the world because 
of offences." Then, too, with what masterly emphasis he quotes 
the words of the Psalmist David, prefacing, " If God wills that 
the war continue until all the wealth piled by the bondmen's two 
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until 
every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another 
drawn with the sword, as w^as said three thousand years ago, so 
still it must be said, ^ The judgments of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether.' " Noble utterances and sublime language, 
which will live as long as the English language shall be spoken! 
Such truthful sayings will go forth from the Chief Magistrate of 
a great people, to break asunder the fetters of slavery throughout 
the world. His name through all coming time will be associated 
with that most important of all his State documents, — his Eman- 



Rev. S. C. Damon. 67 



cipation Proclamation. It may well be compared with the Impe- 
rial Ukase of the Emperor Alexander, giving liberty to twenty 
millions of Russian serfs. From the time and circumstances 
under which it was issued, it must ever be viewed as marking 
the transition point from slavery to freedom, in the history of the 
Republic of America. I cannot stop to dwell upon Mr. Lincoln's 
efforts and labors in behalf of the slaves and the colored people 
of America. It was noble and philanthropic ; and it doubtless 
afforded him unfeigned pleasure, during the latter months of his 
eventful life, to learn, in so many ways, that they appreciated his 
services. This w^as apparent when he received a copy of the 
Holy Bible from the loyal colored people of Baltimore, as a token 
of respect and gratitude. They hailed him as the '"'' friend of 
universal freedom." It never will be known in time, how many 
millions of earnest prayers went up for " Massa Linkum " from 
the Uncle-Tom cabins scattered all over the Slave States, from the 
Potomac to the Rio Grande. Those sincere but enslaved people 
took hold of the Arm that sustained the universe. America 
stands forth to-day disinthralled and saved, not merely by the 
achievements of our noble soldiers, and the masterly statesman- 
ship of our Cabinet Ministers, Senators, and Representatives, but 
there was a power behind all these outward manifestations. 
That power was prayer, — the prayers, too, of the poor. Says the 
son of Sirach, " A prayer out of a poor man's mouth reacheth 
to the ears of God, and his judgment cometh speedily." — " He 
will hear the prayer of the oppressed." — "The prayer of the 
humble pierceth the clouds; and, till it come nigh, he will not be 
comforted, and will not depart till the Most High shall behold to 
judge righteously, and execute judgment." Mr. Lincoln recog- 
nized that power of prayer, as I have already shown, w^hen he left 
his home for the White House at Washington. 

How intensely interesting the fadi, that, while he was thus 



68 God putteth down One, and setteth up Another. 

occupied with the great and momentous affairs of thirty millions 
of people, — of whom four or five millions were in open rebel- 
lion, and a million more were girded as soldiers, — yet, even 
amidst all these cares, he did not negledt the poor who were his 
neighbors, as the following incident will show: — 

A newspaper correspondent from Chicago one day dropped 
in upon Mr. Lincoln, and found him busy counting greenbacks. 
" This, sir," said the President, in his cheerful way, " is something 
out of my usual line; but a President of the United States has a 
multiplicity of duties not specified in the Constitution, or A6ls of 
Congress. This is one of them. This money belongs to a poor 
negro, who is porter in one of the Departments (the Treasury), 
who is at present ill with the small-pox. He is now in the hos- 
pital, and could not draw his pay because he could not sign his 
name. I have been at considerable trouble to overcome the 
difficulty, and get it for him, and have at length succeeded in 
cutting red tape, as your newspaper men say. I am now dividing 
the money, and putting by a portion labelled, in an envelope, with 
my own hands, according to his wish." Such unostentatious a6ls 
of kindness need no comment. Our Saviour said, when upon 
earth, "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little 
ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I 
say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." I doubt not 
that the good man is now reaping his reward in glory for be- 
friending the poor colored porter who could not write his name, — 
sick with the small-pox in the hospital. It is an interesting fa6t, 
that the American citizen, at home and abroad, however humble 
his lot, was not forgotten by him. When it was reported at 
Washington, through the correspondence of our minister, to Mr. 
Seward, that a sailor had been ill-treated at the Marquesas Is-» 
lands, Mr. Lincoln immediately dire6ls, that five hundred dollars 
in gold be devoted to the purchase of presents, to be distributed 



Rev. S. C. Damon. 69 



among Hawaiian missionaries, and others, who had rescued the 
unfortunate man. 

It is an interesting fa6l, that the very last public address which 
Mr. Lincoln ever made, March 17, w^as in reference to colored 
soldiers being employed by the rebels. He remarked, that he 
hoped they would try the experiment. In all his efforts in behalf 
of the colored people of America, he has endeavored to manage 
the subje6l with an enlightened regard to the highest Christian 
duty to his country and to God. Having shown that Mr. Lincoln 
was a6luated, as a public officer, by Christian principle, I am fully 
confident that he was truly an experimental Christian, one whose 
Christianity did not begin and end in a mere formal acknowledg- 
ment of divine Providence. The following incident is reported 
by the Rev. Mr. Adams, a Presbyterian minister of Philadelphia. 
He was on a visit to Washington, and had made an appointment 
to call upon the President at the White House, at five o'clock in 
the morning. Says Mr. Adams, " Morning came, and I hastened 
my toilet, and found myself at a quarter to five in the waiting- 
room of the President. I asked the usher if I could see Mr. 
Lincoln. He said I could not. ^ But I have an engagement to 
meet him this morning.' — ^ At what hour? ' — ^ At five o'clock.' 
^Well, sir, he will see you at five.' I then walked to and fro 
for a few minutes, and, hearing a voice, as if in grave conversa- 
tion, I asked the servant, ^Who is talking in the next room?' 
'It is the President, sir.' — '^ Is an3'body with him?' — ^ No, sir, he 
is reading the Bible.' — ^Is that his habit so early in the morn- 
ing?' — ^Yes, sir, he spends every morning from four o'clock to 
five in reading the Scriptures, and praying.' " How beautiful 
an illustration this is of the injun6tion of our Saviour, " But 
thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and pray to thy 
Father which is in secret " ! How beautiful an instance of 
one who follow^ed our Saviour's devotional habit, who, " in the 



7© God putteth dozun One, and setteth up Another. 



morning, rising up a great while before day," went out and 
prayed ! 

"Prayer, ardent, opens heaven, lets down a stream 
Of glorj on the consecrated hour 
Of man, in audience with the Deity." 

The following incident, however, sets forth Mr. Lincoln's 
views upon the question of vital godliness, in the very strongest 
light. Several months before his ever-to-be-lamented death, a 
gentleman called upon him on business. After the business was 
closed, and they were about to part, the gentleman said to the 
President, " On leaving home, a friend requested me to ask Mr. 
Lincoln whether he loved Jesus." The gentleman makes the 
following report: "The President buried his face in his handker- 
chief, turned away, and wept. He then turned and said, ^ When 
I left home to take the Chair of State, I requested my country- 
men to pray for me. I was not then a Christian. When my son 
died, — the severest trial of my life, — I was not a Christian. 
But when I went to Gettysburg, and looked upon the graves of 
our dead heroes, who had fallen in defence of their country, I 
then and there consecrated myself to Christ. / do love Jesus^ " 
This simple and touching confession needs no comment. It 
opens to the world the heart and religious experience of the good 
man. The people felt that he was honest in all his dealings with 
them, and so he was equally honest with himself and God. 
These few simple utterances, welling up from the depths of his 
heart, and accompanied with tears, will ever be cherished by 
Christians of every name and se6l as the most precious sayings 
of his life. They touch the tenderest chord in the Christian's 
heart. Christians of every name will ever regard him as a 
brother beloved, but departed; and, when thinking of him as 
departed, the language of the burial service will not be inap- 
propriate: "It hath pleased Almighty God, in his wise provi- 



Rev. S. C. Damon. 71 



dence, to take out of this world the soul of our deceased 
brother:" 

Think not, my hearers, that I have brought forward these 
fa6ls and incidents in the life of our lamented President, because 
I think it requires an argument in the style of special pleading to 
prove his adherence to the principles of Christianity, and the 
do6lrines of the New Testament. No: his Christian, as well 
as his public and political, chara6ler is known and read of all 
men. With him, there was no reserve or concealment. His 
character was perfectly transparent. His faults, as well as his 
virtues, were equally apparent; — 

" And e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side." 

He went to the theatre on that fatal night, the telegraph in- 
forms us, because he wished to please his friends, and not disap- 
point the people, who were expecting the presence of General 
Grant. 

" His life was gentle : and the elements 
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, 
And saj to all the world, This zvas a man." 

In turning our thoughts from a contemplation of his character 
to our bleeding country, the question forces itself upon every 
thoughtful mind. What will be the efte6t of Abraham Lincoln's 
assassination upon the nation? Our latest dates afford us, as yet, 
no fa6ls b}^ which we can satisfa6torily answer this question. 
Time must determine. Our minds must for the present find con- 
solation in dwelling upon the great truth, that God lives and 
reigns; and that he is able and "will make the wrath of man to 
praise Him." We may also recall to mind some of those pages 
of history, wherein somewhat similar events are recorded. 
When Brutus and his fellow-assassins smote down Caesar in the 
Senate at Rome, they supposed, that, with Caesar's death, Caesar's 



72 God putteth down One, and setteth up Another. 



influence would no longer be felt They were disappointed. 
Caesar disappeared; but, exclaims Cicero, " All the a6ts of Caesar's 
life, his writings, his words, his promise.., his thoughts, are more 
powerful after his death than if he were still alive." So, I trust, 
and doubt not, it will be with the life, writings, words, promises, 
thoughts, of Abraham Lincoln. His blood has stamped an im- 
press upon these, which will immeasurably increase their value 
throughout all coming time. 

When the hired assassin, Balthazar Gerard, brought to an 
untimely end the eventful life of William the Silent, Prince of 
Orange, on the loth of July, 1584, Philip II., and all the enemies 
of civil and religious liberty, imagined, that, with the death of 
the Prince of Orange, would end his usefulness. But, oh, how 
disappointed were these men! In the beautiful language of 
Motley, " The prince was entombed amid the tears of a whole 
nation. Never was a more extensive, unaffedted, and legitimate 
sorrow felt at the death of any human being. As long as he 
lived, he was the guiding-star of a whole brave nation; and when 
he died, the little children cried in the streets." The Common- 
wealth, which William had liberated for ever from Spanish 
tyranny, continued to exist, as a great and flourishing Republic, 
during more than two centuries, under the successive stadthold- 
erates of his sons and descendants. So, I doubt not, a similar 
result will follow the assassination of the illustrious man, whose 
most unexpected death we now lament. He died the martyr to 
liberty. He was assassinated by the hand of Booth; but it was 
negro-chattel slavery which nerved that arm, and prompted that 
basest of crimes in the annals of nations. This was the crown- 
ing a6t of the slaveholders' rebellion. Sumter was fired upon on 
the 12th of April, 1861. Booth shot President Lincoln on the 
14th of April, 1865. The same bad animus that first struck 
down the flag in '61, fired the assassin's bosom, when he smote 



Rev, S. C. Damon. 



73 



down the President, — Commander-in-chief of all the military and 
naval forces of the Republic. No powers of metaphysical analy- 
sis can separate the two. Perhaps it was needed that this crime 
of crimes should be perpetrated to arouse the minds of the 
American people to the awful enormity of the crime of slavery 
and treason. The deed has been accomplished; and, henceforth 
and for ever, in the minds of all loyal Americans, and lovers of 
liberty throughout the world, a stigma has been fastened upon 
the crime oi slavery and treason^ which can never be wiped away. 
However much we may pity the unfortunate dupes of the leaders 
of that rebellion, the deeds of the instigators and leaders can 
never be palliated; for their crimes all culminated in Booth's 
assassination of Abraham Lincoln. How the perpetrator of that 
crime shall be punished, remains to be seen; but woe be unto 
those who arouse the wrath of a nation of thirty millions of 
people! Solomon compares the wrath of a king to "the roaring 
of a lion," and to "messengers of death;" but to what shall be 
compared the people's wrath .^ Mr. Lincoln could not execute 
that wrath. He found it, from the overflowing kindness of his 
nature, almost impossible to punish the guilty. Perhaps there 
was no trait of his chara6ler to which his enemies took more 
exception, and over which his friends more deeply mourned. It 
sometimes seriously embarrassed the regular administration of 
justice. The officers of the army and the Government said it 
was useless to arrest offenders and traitors, for Mr. Lincoln would 
pardon them. At the last meeting of the Cabinet, held only the 
day before his death, Mr. Lincoln expressed his determination to 
deal in the most liberal manner with the rebellious States. As 
it has been well remarked, " The great, capacious, manly heart of 
Abraham Lincoln was generous enough to have embraced all 
within the forgiveness of its loving nature; and, in their madness, 
they have killed him." The best friend of the rebels was assassi- 

lO 



74 God puttetk down One, and setteth up Another, 



nated by one of themselves; and no doubt, if he could have again 
spoken, he would have prayed, in the language of our Saviour on 
the cross, " Father, forgive them: they know not what they do." 

The event to which our attention has now been called, will 
not pass into oblivion, and be forgotten. It was not done in a 
corner; but the crime was perpetrated, as it were, in the presence 
of a gazing crowd of spe6lators, infinitely larger than that gath- 
ered in the theatre where it took place. Abraham Lincoln was 
assassinated on the world's wide stage. There was a great 
cloud of witnesses. What shall be its influence upon the 
nation and the world, we know not now; but we shall know 
hereafter. It will be overruled for good. How unspeakably 
thankful we all should be, that he was spared thus long to the 
nation, even to see a virtual ending of the rebellion! God per- 
mitted this stunning blow to fall for the accomplishment of some 
wise purpose. I do believe, that, in after years and ages, it 
will be seen to have been necessary for bringing about the final 
triumph of justice and truth, and the punishment of the guilty. 
For a season, clouds and darkness may surround the throne of 
God, and envelop his plans and purposes; but, ere long, he will 
make all clear and plain. If we are watchful, and take the word 
of God for our guide, we shall see the dark clouds revealing a 
rainbow of glorious promise. I am confident that a bright and 
glorious future is opening before our country. Let us be hope- 
ful. Great results must follow from these tragic events of war 
and commotion. Surely we have witnessed enough to make us 
trustful and confiding. It seems to be a law or principle which 
God observes in his management of nations, as well as indi- 
viduals, that, when he would bestow some signal favor, he pre- 
pares the way by severe chastisements. Surely I think we may 
hope that God has great good in store for that people, when he 
shall have chastised them for that great sin of slavery. That 



Rev. S. C. Damon. ycj 



must be removed before the millennium come, and the gospel 
shall everywhere triumph. In the appropriate language of Long- 
fellow, I would exhort you, "Look not mournfully upon the past: 
it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present: it is 
thine. Go forth and meet the shadowy future, without fear, and 
with a manly heart." Let us not go forth, however, trusting in 
an " arm of flesh," but in God, our Saviour and Deliverer, most 
fully believing the sentiment of the text, "What I do, thou know- 
est not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." — " God is the 
judged 




SERMON: 

PREACHED IN THE SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, HOLYOKE, MASS., ON 
WEDNESr^Y, APRIL 1 9, 1865 ; 

BY REV. O. H. DUTTON. 



Psalms xc. 6: "In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is 
cut down, dried up and withered." 

THE whirling swiftness of the events in the midst of which 
we live, takes us through strange scenes, and forces sudden 
contrasts upon us. We stand bewildered and doubtful among 
them. Man's importance dwindles. By a common instin6l, 
which puts aside with authority all the impious thoughts, all the 
blasphemous words of the scoffer, men turn their eyes to God, 
and pause in humble waiting on his will. 

Among strange scenes, and amid sudden contrasts, indeed, we 
move. Where are now the jubilant clang of bells, and the roar 
of answering cannon; the cheerful countenance; the mutual con- 
gratulations of men; the flashing illumination, — all the demon- 
strations of joy and gratitude which but ten days ago gave a 
bounding energy to every step, and caused us all to smile as we 
looked from the smoky past toward the bright sunshine of the 
future? Given place to muflSed sounds, to hearts bowed down, 
to heads shaking in foreboding, to breasts surcharged with grief 
for whose utterance even groans will not suflSce. 



Rev. O. H. Dutton. 77 



The country has mourned before this day. A few here and 
there live who dimly remember the lamentation for the death 
of the first President. Many of us recall with ease the sorrow 
upon the land when the ninth ended his briefest term of office. 
And most of us distinctly recolle6t the death of our twelfth Chief 
Magistrate, with all the attending circumstances of the general 
grief. The nation has mourned before; but never as now. 

And where lies the pungency of our sorrow? Not chiefly in 
the loss of a wise man of far-seeing vision and of firmest will. 
That is a subject for calmer regret, but not for blinding, despair- 
ing affli6lion of soul. No: the thought which smote all hearts as 
the horrible tidings of last week's close swept over the land was, 
that we had lost a friend; a living, loving personality had been 
snatched away: 'twas as if some one whom we knew, and with 
whom we had taken sweet counsel together, had been laid low. 
Therefore we wept. Thence arises this weary moaning, which 
makes of the whole nation a grand ^olian harp, whose thou- 
sand strings vibrate in shivering unison, with tones of deepest 
woe. 

And now, the people of the country everywhere assemble, as 
we do here, to take part in the burial of this true fellow-citizen, 
this wise counsellor, this noble-hearted friend. In the nation's 
capital, the mortal remains are now passing amid tenderest care 
toward the grave; and, in every village where stands a house 
dedicated to God's worship, overflowing hearts are paying the 
tribute due to one whose memory shall ever be accompanied with 
blessing. 

While we need not to-day attempt to give what would neces- 
sarily be an imperfe6l sketch of the late President's life; and 
while we cannot hope to present any thing like a thorough resume 
of his character, or to make any thing like an intelligent group- 
ing of his great official a6fs, — we yet may properly and profita- 



7 8 Sermon. 

bly refer to some of his more marked qualities as statesman 
and man. 

You know that honesty of his, which has become proverbial. 
It was not the mere honesty in pecuniary matters, but an upright- 
ness which pervaded all his relations with mankind; a desire to 
know the absolute truth, and a fixed determination to a6l upon 
that knowledge when gained. It was the honesty of a6lion as 
well as of intention: some men, you know, are honest at the out- 
set in their purposes, but through an imperfectly balanced charac- 
ter are twisted aside into a crooked line of aftion. This was by 
no means the case with him. He sought first to know himself, 
and all the dangers to which he was liable from his own personal 
peculiarities; then he endeavored thoroughly to learn the real 
bearings of every question offered to him: he would present it to 
all lights; would take the opinions of the enemies as well as the 
friends of any measure: he knew how to make allowances for 
the prejudices of those in favor of, as well as of those against, any 
line of a6tion pressed upon him. He was not to be pushed hastily 
into any step, nor was he to be restrained when the time seemed 
to his honest, justice-loving mind to have fully come. 

As a natural consequence, Mr. Lincoln was misunderstood for 
a long time, — a very long time. Radical men from one important 
State and another would post to Washington, have an interview 
with the President, and urge their most violent plans upon him: 
but then they would be chagrined to find, that, while they were 
more than courteously listened to; while every bit of valuable in- 
telligence or useful suggestion they had to offer was eagerly 
seized by him, and honestly used, — their pet schemes were not 
put in motion; and thereupon there would result dissatisfaftion. 

But then appeared the shining qualities of Mr. Lincoln's na- 
ture. He could be patient in the midst of the censures of his 
friends. Confident in his own integrity, and with a splendid trust 



Rev. O. H. Dutton. 79 



in his true eye, this steady pilot kept his hand on the helm, and 
smiled amid all storms. He lived through several of these trying 
times; and the men who had blamed his slow^ness, thanked God 
that their impetuosity had not changed his course. 

I said that they complained of his slowness. There was a 
quality in Mr. Lincoln which was indeed remarkable in this head- 
long age, among such an irritable people. His honesty — another 
name for his sense of justice — made him seem slow. He wished 
to hear, and he zvoiild hear, every particle of evidence before the 
case was taken up for decision. Then he did what he felt to be 
right; that is, he first gave long and careful deliberation to the 
matter, and then moved with an absolutely inflexible purpose to- 
ward his end. He would not import the dash of the battle-field 
into the deliberations of the council-chamber. He knew that all 
important questions of State would gain by waiting. There he 
felt secure in his own judgment, and there he held firm. In mat- 
ters which, as we may say, were not legitimately within his pro- 
vince except by name, — as military affairs, — he was modest, and, 
though having opinions, allowed himself to be, perhaps not unfre- 
quently, overruled; when, even here, in most cases, I believe the 
fafts would show that his ideas were more judicious than those 
finally substituted. But, where questions of State were involved, 
he would deliberate long, and a6l with absolute independence. 
We used often to hear, two years ago, remarks like this: That 
hopes had been entertained that the President would take this or 
that step, but that such a strong pressure had been brought upon 
him on the other side, that the hope had been given up; but lately 
we have not heard such remarks, simply because men had begun 
to know that it was not an adverse influence which defeated their 
proje6ts, but simply the resistance of a strong and just nature to 
their own inordinate pressure. The honesty, sense of justice, 
which seemed an inborn, and was an absolutely fixed, principle of 



8o Sermon. 

his being, was the sure moral foundation on which all his excel- 
lences rested. 

In patriotism he was a bright exemplar. Absolute modesty, 
utter self-abnegation, chara6lerized all his a6ls. He made no 
verbal professions of patriotism, more than he did of honesty. 
He seemed to think it as absurd for a public officer to advertise 
his love of country, as it would be for a judge to boast of fairness. 
In fa6l, he never thought of self A simple, single desire to serve 
the country, and to guide her safely through her sea of troubles, 
was the motive power of all his a6ls. 

With this unfailing honesty and this shining patriotism was 
joined a far-seeing wisdom, which — under God — has brought 
us again to the boundary of peace. Our late President was a 
wiser man than most of those around him, than most of those 
throughout the land. He could penetrate farther into the future 
than most. His wisdom seemed — like his honesty and his pa- 
triotism — to be an instinft; and where other men, wise in their 
generation, would have hastily taken a certain step, he waited and 
looked about him, usually seeing a reason for different aftion. 
Turn back along the history of the past four years, and see how 
man}^ afts there are, which, had they been otherwise done, would 
most likely have brought us to-day into another and surely worse 
condition than that which we now hold. The question of eman- 
cipation, upon which more pressure was brought to bear for and 
against than on any other, — emancipation was the dear wish of 
his heart. But not even to accomplish that would he take a step 
which honesty and patriotism did not approve. His wisdom 
showed him the difficulties before him, and dire6led him how to 
avoid them all. And now grandly that wisdom stands forth this 
day in conne6tion with the gi-eat result of the war, — Universal 
Liberty. 

There was a positive sublimity in Mr. Lincoln's calm stead- 



Rev. O. H. Dutton. 8i 



fastness and self-reliance, — qualities which nev^er deserted him, 
and of which he often had especial need. There have been man}^ 
dark days during this war, as you surely need not be told. There 
have been months of what the people thought ina6lion; times 
when every thing seemed slipping into chaos; moments when 
political manipulations seemed to be paralyzing the military arm, 
and making the Executive a merely nominal power. The opposi- 
tion presses throughout the country were joining in one yell of 
objurgation ; the friendly journals were fault-finding, changeable, 
lukewarm; the people fancied they saw imbecilit}' in the Admin- 
istration. Amid all this uproar, with the awful responsibility of 
the nation's weal on his shoulders, — under which, in such a mo- 
ment of anxiety, a timid man would have fled, and a nervous man 
would have died, — he remained firm, quiet, unruffled, certain that 
the future would justify the present, and willing to wait for the 
coming verdi6t. 

Try to place yourselves in imagination in the position he occu- 
pied, for instance, when some great military plan was coming to 
its development, and there was impending one of those series of 
bloody actions which you all know so well. The fighting begins. 
The moment for which the people have been clamoring has 
come. If the result of the battles be favorable, well; if the result 
be a defeat, then upon the head of the President is sure to de- 
scend a torrent of censure. Can you conceive any thing more 
trying than such an interval of anxiety and suspense ? It would 
have been hard enough to have endured it, if success should 
come: but perchance we are beaten; now what strength is like 
that which can stand up, unmoved in its conscious integrity, and 
outlive that overthrow? What courage like that which can pa- 
tiently clear away the ruins, and then sit down to construct 
another edifice, still hopefully? Such unfailing strength, such 
indomitable courage, chara6terized the man for w^hom we mourn. 

1 1 



82 Sermon. 

But — again disclaiming any pretence of having given more 
than an imperfe6t outline of Mr. Lincoln's chara6teristics as a 
statesman — let us turn to look at him in his personal traits. It 
was my lot to be one of the number who accompanied the Presi- 
dent ele6t on his circuitous journey from his Western home to 
Washington, previous to his first inauguration. At night, when 
we paused at some large town or city, there was, of course, con- 
fusion, and all the jargon of a public demonstration. But when, 
the next morning, we were once more under way, freedom of 
intercourse was again restored, and the inmates of the two cars 
which composed the special train moved to and fro as they 
chose. Thus, during the eight or nine days consumed before 
reaching New- York City, all had the opportunity of seeing much 
of the man upon whom the heart-hopes of the whole country 
then rested with a prophetic instin6t. Of course, political mat- 
ters were not discussed in any general way; and except for the 
three or four brief speeches during the day, when at some way- 
station the people would have colle6led to greet their President, 
no one would have known that so noteworthy a personage was 
there. But this very absence of official circumstance gave us all 
the more opportunity of observing his personal chara6teristics ; 
and these, as then developed to us, never changed, even in the 
atmosphere of the capital. 

Mr. Lincoln was essentially and thoroughly a kind man: his 
was a homely kindness, too, which made no one feel as '\{ sub- 
je6led to a condescension. While speaking to those j^ounger 
than himself, he was apt to put his hand upon the other's shoulder, 
and then would utter some bit of quaint wisdom, or make some 
personal inquiry, through which a magnetism would steal into the 
one with whom he conversed, drawing him along with gentle but 
resistless force. One of the most charmino' recolle6lions of the 
trip is of the peculiar love existing between the President ele6t 



Rev. O. H. Dutton. 83 



and Colonel Ellsworth, who was of the party. As they sat or 
stood talking together, the former's arm would be thrown around 
Ellsworth with the air of an older brother; and, as if in return for 
this regard, the latter would constitute himself a special body- 
guard, and his vigorous strength would open a way through the 
densest crowd which gathered at the terminus of the day's ride 
to gaze at and hail with shouts the illustrious visitor. 

To people generally, Mr. Lincoln was by no means a demon- 
strative person, and his courtes}^ had not the finish of the polished 
man of society. But his genuine kindness was unfailing: it 
would show itself in the trip spoken of on seeing, at a station 
where no stop was to be made, a waiting crowd. He could not 
bear to disappoint the people, he said; and it was the same feel- 
ing which sent him, relu6lant, to the theatre, to meet his death. 
He would gladly have avoided the conspicuous display; but the 
cry, " We want to see President Lincoln," he could not resist. 
" I think I must say '^how d'ye do ' to them," he would remark to 
the manager of the excursion: and so he would step out upon the 
rear platform, acknowledging the greeting, and beginning an ad- 
dress which would most likely be quickly cut short by the moving 
off of the train; when, with a last pleasant word, and one of his 
peculiar smiles, which seemed to light up the whole assembly, he 
would return to his place, making some apologetic remark to the 
representatives of the press for the unfinished oration, and then 
for an hour or two more would be the plain and happy father of 
his children, of whose frolics he never grew weary. 

This broad, genial kindness of heart never left him through 
life. Those who were associated with him, — whether private 
secretaries or house servants, socially or officially, — all join in 
this, — that he was invariably a gentle man. He truly rejoiced 
with the joyful, and wept with the mourner. Whether reviewing 
the army, or visiting the bedside of the thousand inmates of a 



84 Sermon. 

military hospital, or listening to the supplication of some poor 
woman who besought that the forfeited life of an erring son might 
be spared, — he was ever the kind friend, the sympathetic com- 
forter, the merciful-hearted ruler. 

His modesty was a most noticeable trait. An idea of display 
never entered his mind. He was entirely destitute of what we 
call " manner." There was no air of authority upon him. He 
never did any thing for effeft, or with a dash. He was never 
hurried, never heated ; never wore the look of anxiety which is so 
fatal to a nation's tranquillity, when seen upon a rulers face in a 
troublous time: he seemed to be cheerful from principle; and 
cheerful because he had a genuine trust in God, — the High and 
Mighty Ruler of the Universe. 

And this brings us to say a word of Mr. Lincoln's Christian 
chara6ler. The sources from which comes our present convi<5lion 
of his really genuine religious experience are open before all 
men. When a man so honest and so wise indicates, declares, 
plainly as words can say it, that his trust is in God, we have but 
to believe, and rejoice in believing, that he knows indeed the bles- 
sedness of such a hope, ever an anchor to the soul. I think that 
you who have taken note, even without especial reference to this 
point, of the late President's addresses and proclamations, will 
say, that there has been a gradually increasing spirit of piety 
manifested in those papers, a spirit which culminates in his last 
Inaugural Address, — that strangely solemn word, so unexpe6ted, 
so almost startling, which breathed a temper truly Christ-like, a 
trust in God grand in its sublimity of expression. 

But God, on whom he placed his hope, fulfilling his own 
righteous purpose, mysterious though it be, willed that his work 
on earth should cease. And so this honest man, patriot citizen, 
wise statesman, kind friend, modest ruler, gentle Christian, — this 
leader of our Israel, — died on the borders of the promised land, 



Rev. O. H. Button. 85 



whither he was not allowed to go fully over, though he might see 
it from a distance. After, through much toil, and having borne 
the heat and burden of the day, he had labored to bring his coun- 
try through her perils, he was cut down in the evening of the 
strife, just as he w^as looking forward to rest under the vine and 
fig-tree of lovely peace. A strange life! A death wondrous 
strange ! Think of that humble origin ; that remarkable upward 
course; that four years of dust and smoke and blood, of turmoil, 
anger's writhing and disafTe(5lion's upheaving; that sudden suc- 
cession of flashing vi6tories won by his generals; the crowning 
triumph of his simple entrance into the rebel capital, — neither 
rebel nor capital longer; and then that swift destruction, — the 
quenching of a precious life in the murkiness and gloom of a hor- 
rible crime. Wonderful life! More wonderful death! Who but 
God can unlock its inscrutable meaning? 

It is impossible to think and speak of this visitation of the 
Almighty hand without going behind it, and looking for its cause. 
If a thunderbolt had slain him, or if he had fallen by one of the 
more common strokes which lay so many low^, the loss would 
have been still irreparable, men say; but the blow would not have 
been so sickening in its effedts. Had even a ruffianly hand, 
guided by an avaricious heart, stricken him, the same degree of 
horror would not have been aroused. But it is that this a6t is the 
final culmination in death of that sin which was brought forth of 
the lust of gain and power, — the sin of human slavery. We 
needed to have one truth forced upon us, — that the system which 
has borne the terrible fruits of the past does of itself destroy the 
moral fibre of humanity, and make any crime easy to him whose 
passions are influenced from such a source. We needed, I say, 
to have this truth forced upon us; and it has made slow prog- 
ress, even in the events of the last four years, till within this week 
which follows Friday last. We have been slow to be convinced 



86 Sermon. 

that slavery in the nation, like habitual drunkenness in the indi- 
vidual, would, as a rule, destroy honor, and make of man a raging 
beast. We denied, and still denied, that the rules of ordinary 
warfare were violated ; that wounded men were butchered ; that 
captured men were subje6led to the terrible torture of a slow star- 
vation, which could end only in idiocy or death. We forced 
ourselves to doubt these things, till the truth of the awful tale was 
thrust upon us by concurrent, irrefragable testimony; by the tot- 
terino- return to us of brothers and friends, ruined by no wound 
of the battle-field; and by those sun-piftures which cannot lie, 
and which are so dreadful that we hide them from our wives and 
daughters in pure mercy. We tried not to believe that a Southern 
prison had been deliberately mined, and that, in a certain emer- 
gency, it was to have been blown into fragments, with all its 
famine-stricken inmates, — till we heard the a6l defended by 
Southern men. And yet, with all this accumulation of proof of 
the rottenness produced by the system, we were not prepared — 
I venture to say — for the dagger and the pistol, for conspiracy 
and assassination. 

God forbid that we, his ministers, standing here in the temple 
where his mercy dwelleth, serving under the orders of the Prince 
of Peace, and met together with you to commemorate the burial 
of one whose every word was kindness, — God forbid that we 
should seem to say any thing to inflame the passions of men, or 
to excite desires for a carnal vengeance ! Rather would we bring 
home to the consciences of all men the question. Am I guiltless 
in this matter? We have temporized too much in our halls of 
legislation, and in all the marts of trade. We have eaten, and 
wiped our mouths, and said, " I have done no wickedness." Did 
we think that the Almighty God would hide his face from sin, — 
would wink at the wrong-doing, — would prevent as by a miracle 
the natural outworking of the virulence within ? My brethren, 



Rev. O. H. Button. 87 



when shall we learn that there is in truth a God of perfe6l justice ? 
When know that he really governs this world ? When be con- 
vinced that retribution must follow crime ? While Boards of Trade 
have bridged over awkward gaps in the body politic with resolu- 
tions; while men have gone about with trowels and mortar 
smoothing over the cracks which show the presence of the hidden 
internal fire, — the volcano has been working still, and all human 
contrivances have been but as tow before the fierceness of the 
furnace. 

Let us not forget to-day, that we are under the mighty hand 
of God. Do you not remember how ready we were but a week 
ago to discard humiliation, and rush into resounding joy, almost 
forgetful of the Lord, who is the only Giver of all vi6lory? 
Thoughtful men trembled when wave after wave of triumph 
rolled in upon us, and we seemed to have moved at a step from 
out of thick darkness into broadest sunlight. Some of us still 
feared that bitter trouble was coming; that we had not yet been 
sufficiently punished: and we asked ourselves. Will the blow 
take the form of financial disaster? Will perhaps a foreign war 
crowd upon us ? What will it be } For in the atmosphere there 
is something telling of danger. But we did not think of this. 
We did not dream that every loyal heart in the land would be 
pierced with sharpest grief; that even the brightness of the lovely 
spring would be changed into a light more saddening than an 
autumn farewell. 

God has his purposes, — and all are wise. Let us reverently 
ask to be taught his will. While mourning over the affliction 
he has sent upon us, let us thank him from the depths of our 
overflowing hearts, that he gave us this wise man and true- 
hearted leader — this second Father of his country — so long; 
that we are permitted to reap what he has sowed ; that through 
him — under God — we see, even in this sad moment, the virtual 



88 . Sermon. 

4^ 

end of that rebellion, which, four years ago to-day, shed the first 
blood of our citizens, — the virtual end of the war which was 
begun by a mob, which has been ended by an assassin. 

And now, while one simultaneous sound of wailing goes up 
from the length and breadth of the land; while through the 
sweet sunshine, and surrounded with all the fragrance of Na- 
ture's opening life, the mortal body of our ruler and friend is 
carried to the burial, there to rest in the hope of a joyful resur- 
re6tion, through Jesus Christ our Lord, — let us take for the guid- 
ance of our future steps, as private citizens, or members of the 
great body, — the State, those concluding words of his last mes- 
sage, — words which will for ever shine as a halo around the 
memory of him from whom we now for ever in this life take our 
leave : — 

" With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness 
in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to 
finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to 
care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow 
and his orphans; and to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." 



.--^-»«a»Si 




THE NATION'S BEREAVEMENT: 

A DISCOURSE DET.IVERED IN THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, BUFFAEO, N.Y., 
SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 1 6, 1 865 ; 

BY REV. J. HAZARD HARTZELL. 



2 Samuel, xxii. 28 : "And the afflicfted people thou wilt save." 

THIS is the language of David in regard to the people of Is- 
rael. They had passed through a terrible confli6t with the 
Philistines. Israel had emerged from the shock and blood, the 
commotion and destruaion, of war, mighty and viaorious. But 
some of their great men had fallen, and bitter sorrow came upon 
Israel. Their kingdom had been delivered by the hand of the 
Almighty; and, whilst they rejoiced over this deliverance, they 
were called to mourn over the great men who had perished in 
the struggle. David returned thanks to the Almighty for the 
viaory over his enemies, and, with the voice of the sublimest 
confidence, declared that God would save his affliaed people. 
Oh! it is grand and inspiring to see this old king, amid the sorrow 
and desolation of the people, with the light of viaory streaming 
all over his kingdom, which had been shaken by the tumult of 
war, looking up with a full heart, and thanking God for his timely 
intercession. 

With these introduaory remarks, we pass, with indescribable 
feelings, to speak this morning upon " The Nation's Bereavement." 

12 



^o The Nation's Bereavement, 



Stunned by the terrific blow, and appalled by the unspeakable 
horror of a most wicked tragedy, we hardly know how to ap- 
proach the subje6t. The President of the Republic is struck 
down by the red hand of the midnight assassin, in the hour of 
our national triumph; and a loving people are in tears. The 
Secretary of State lies in a critical condition, with blood oozing 
from the wounds infli6ted by the relentless murderer; and rejoic- 
ing freemen are shocked and bewildered. The light of vidlory 
has given way to the darkness of death; and the angel of liber- 
ty hangs, with piteous look and sheltering wing, over the Repub- 
lic. We find our feelings expressed in the language of Macduff, 
when he discovered Duncan lying bloody and dead in his cham- 
ber: — 

" Confusion now hath made his masterpiece ! 
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope 
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole from thence 
The Life of the building." 

A loyal people are wrenched with agony, and overshadowed 
with desolation. Bells have tolled their melancholy music, and 
every city in the country is draped in the deepest mourning. 
Tears are the eloquent utterances of a mighty people, who have 
conquered a rebellion, the most bloody and wicked that ever 
darkened the earth, and redeemed a nation, the most free and 
just upon which the sun ever poured its light. But, beneath 
these tears, so profuse and bitter, there is a firm, deep, steady 
purpose to punish treason and murder; to re-instate the Republic 
upon the everlasting foundations of justice and righteousness; to 
advance with a giant tread, and meet the momentous issues of 
the hour; to usher in the luminous period of law and order, and 
let the nation travel, with triumphant banners, up the prophetic 
highway of a glorious destiny. 

First treason, and then murder: how they follow in rapid 



Rev. y. Hazard Harfzell. 91 

succession, shocking the heart, and bewildering the brain! 
Wickedness finds culmination in the massacre of the President; 
and in the fiendish attack upon the Secretary, when suffering 
intense pain upon his narrow couch. It is the deep, dark, dam- 
ning stain upon the escutcheon of American civilization, which 
will require the operation of centuries to obliterate. It will re- 
quire the attrition of a thousand reforms, and the polish of long 
years of education and refinement, to give this escutcheon its 
former brilliancy. Long will it be before the American people 
will outgrow this foul, rank disgrace, which clings to them, at 
this moment, like a cold, withering shadow upon their land, which 
is richer to-day, thank God ! with its golden sheaves and loyal 
hearts, than Europe is with its dusty thrones and burnished 
crowns. 

Not only has a good man fallen, but every citizen of the 
Republic has been struck. When the President fell by the cold 
hand of the assassin, every freeman in the country received the 
blotch of infamy upon his forehead. In the presence of law, 
Abraham Lincoln was not the President of this party, nor of that 
party, but of the people; and, as such, he fell. We say, with 
Mark Antony, — 

" Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen ! 
Then I and you and all of us fell down. 
Whilst bloody treason flourished over us." 

And what a commentary it is upon the civilization of this coun- 
try, when we reflect that the truth of the present, so full of horror 
and disgrace, is so forcibly expressed by the language of Mark 
Antony over the dead body of Caesar, as it lay in the proud city 
of Rome, speaking, with a terrible eloquence, to the frenzied 
multitude, from many a wound. This shocking tragedy occurred 
under the ruling civilization of heathenism; but it is not more 
cruel, bloody, and wicked, than the- one which has just been 



92 The Nation's Bereavement. 

performed in Washington, amid the spiritual forces of Christiani- 
ty. Oh! respected freemen, it is a terrible misfortune to be 
thrown, by the puny arm of one man, back three thousand years 
into the cold and chilling atmosphere of barbarism. Oh! my 
afRi(5led countrymen, we have met with an awful calamity; and it 
behooves us, in this hour of trial and sorrow, to rise above all the 
prejudices of party and sectarianism, and awake to the important 
duties of the hour. 

" Awake ! 
Shake oft' this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, 
And look on death itself! Up, up, and see 
The great doom's image ! Malcolm ! Banquo ! 
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites. 
To countenance this horror ! " 

This assassination of the President discloses a recklessness 
and a depravity, that must be humiliating to every American. It 
is the revealment of that contempt for law and order, which must 
lower the Government in the minds of Europeans. It is the 
development of that awful spirit of treason, which has been 
nurtured, for years, in malignant bosoms, under the diabolus of 
nullification. It is the same spirit which disgraced the halls 
of American Congress by its passion, despotism, and brutal vio- 
lence; and that brought sorrow to the hearts, and pallor to the 
lips, of millions of freemen, by firing into the honored flag on 
Fort Sumter. It has now risen to the climax of perfidy; and the 
blood of our Chief Magistrate is crying to us, in melting tones, 
from the ground. 

We hoped that we had passed from the period of violence and 
destruction, treason and murder. We had hoped that our great- 
est sorrow had been experienced, our heaviest calamities borne, 
our deepest darkness passed. But we were mistaken; for a 
shock of commotion, like a clap of thunder from a sky that 
looked beautiful and serene, has shaken the nation. We stood in 



Rev. y. Hazard Hartzell. 93 

the morning light of the new era which had commenced to break 
over the country, with flags of triumph waving, and bells of 
gladness ringing, when the President was stricken down. The 
foot of the nation was upon the neck of the rebellion, and it 
was passing through its last spasm, rolling and struggling in the 
dust, when this awful calamity fell upon us. With the light of 
peace and joy beaming upon the land, in consequence of the 
glorious triumph of the invincible army of the Republic, we 
should have rejoiced if the life of the President could have been 
spared. But the Almighty, for some wise purpose beyond our 
comprehension, has allowed him to be removed, from a sphere 
of unwearied eftbrt and intense anxiety, to a sphere, we trust, of 
tranquil peace and heavenly rest, where dark clouds never lower, 
and the fire-storms never come. 

We scarcely know where to find a parallel to this crime, 
which is at this moment weighing upon the heart of the nation. 
William the First, Prince of Orange, who gave freedom to the 
Dutch, and was venerated and honored for his humane disposi- 
tion and sterling chara6ler, and who won the affeftion of his 
people by his kindness and uprightness, was murdered in the 
sixteenth century. The assassin was a young man from Burgun- 
dy, who fired a pistol, containing three balls, at the Prince, when 
he fell and died, with the words, Mon Dieu! Mon Dieuf Ayes 
pitie de moi et de ton pativre peuple! But, taking both periods 
into consideration, this crime does not equal the one before which 
America stands appalled this morning. Since the assassination 
of William the First, we have had three centuries in which to 
advance government, civilization, and religion, with no little 
monarchies quarrelling and contending around us. Contrasting 
the periods and the countries, the assassination of the President 
of the United States is a crime which has scarcely a parallel in 
history. 



94 The Nation's Bereavement. 

True, a few men, conspicuous in the affairs of Government in 
various countries, have fallen by the hand of the assassin. The 
great Duke of Buckingham, w^hen about to embark at Portsmouth, 
to put himself at the head of a new armament, fell by the dagger 
of Felton. Percival, when Prime Minister of Great Britain, was 
killed with a pistol-shot as he was approaching the door of the 
House of Commons. Henry the Fourth, the best king of France, 
was slain by the dagger of Ravaillac, when he was riding in his 
coach through the streets of Paris. Many of the Czars of the old 
Russian Empire were assassinated when their soldiers bristled in 
their armor on many a field. But when before in the annals of 
history was there a man at the head of a mighty Republic, who 
had so much simplicity of nature and kindness of disposition, 
who ruled to elevate and not to enslave, who was venerated 
and loved by millions of intelligent freemen, removed from the 
sphere of his earthly existence by an atrocious murder at the very 
moment he was being hailed the Deliverer of his Country? 

Now that Abraham Lincoln is gone, let us put away all pas- 
sion and prejudice, and recognize and honor the sublime virtues 
of his character. We shall not look upon him as belonging to 
this party or to that party, but as an American and a Christian, 
who, rising from poverty and obscurity to a position more eminent 
and glorious than that of a throne, by his own industry, talent, and 
virtue, has demonstrated to us the worth of our institutions. We 
shall call upon him, not as a Republican leader, but as an Ameri- 
can citizen of a loft}^ purpose, a noble character, and a great heart, 
whose name will go down to unborn millions with an attractive 
splendor. Pure in every aim and aspiration, honest in every 
principle and measure, cheerful and benignant in the darkest days 
of the Republic, he carried himself forward in his work with a 
sublime grandeur. Just as Aristides, humble as Cincinnatus, 
humane and magnanimous as Constantine, he gained the confi- 



Rev. y. Hazard Hartzell. 95 

dence, the admiration, and the affe6lion of the people. With his 
heart wedded to the attractive principles of justice and liberty; 
shaking hands with the humblest soldier and poorest bondman; 
having a word and a smile for all, even those in the lowest condi- 
tion, — he will pass into history as one of the greatest benefa6lors 
of the human race. With childlike trust in God, and with unwa- 
vering faith in the stability of democratic institutions, he toiled 
with a cool brain and a warm heart for the restoration of the 
Union, and the triumph of the Government. Oh! my affli6ted 
countrymen, remember in this sad hour, he was an American; 
that he rose from among us to his eminent office, under the aegis 
of the Constitution, and there venerated God. Take up his red 
mantle this morning, and press it to your affli(5fed hearts, and weep 
as you look upon the noble form of an honest man, cold in death, 
who served us all in this awakening period to the best of his 
ability. 

God, it seems from the revealments of history, when he has 
any great work to be accomplished for the good of the people, 
often chooses the humblest instrument. He calls his servant, 
stripped of all selfishness and arrogance, from the most obscure 
fireside, and guides and upholds him in a work which procures 
freedom, elevation, and happiness for the people. The simplicity 
and meekness of Abraham Lincoln, combined with his integrity 
and benevolence, gave an attra6lion to his character which won 
so many hearts. He will go down the dim aisles of the future 
with the torches of rejoicing flaming all around him, carried by 
four millions of a despised race from whose limbs he struck the 
chains! 

And whilst this sorrow hangs upon every se6t and party, upon 
every class and condition in the land, let us not despair of the 
Republic. The blood of the President will cement all se6ts and 
parties, and they will now stand like a tremendous barrier against 



V 



96 The Naiiofi's Bereavement. 

the under-currents of treason. In the presence of the mufdered 
Chief, the entire North stands united this morning; and we be- 
lieve the nation is stronger this moment than it has ever been 
since the commencement of the dire conflict. The rebellion is 
now so crushed under the iron heel of war, that it can never rise 
again and shake its gory locks at freemen. 

The sparkling light of a new epoch is streaming upon us: the 
golden doors of a new era are opening to receive us. With firm- 
ness of purpose and concert of a6lion we can, as a people, now 
rise to the loftiest summit of power and glory. Let us not be 
discouraged, nor waver in our duty in this hour; for we believe 
the present emergency will develop that knowledge of diplo- 
macy, that willingness to endure, that readiness to obey, which 
shall make our people great in the eyes of all nations. But 
let us resolve, by homes desolated; by families broken up; by 
the heaped graves of a hundred battle-fields; by the pale forms 
of sixty thousand unconquered soldiers, who have wasted away in 
Southern prisons; by the precious blood of a million heroes; by 
the shocking murder of the President, whose broken body lies 
stiff and cold in the Capitol of our country to-day, — that the 
Republic shall live, and that the flag shall wave in perfect triumph 
over every State in the Union! 

Let us not be carried away by passion and feeling. This will 
only increase the waves on the sea of commotion. This will only 
swell these waves into billows of excitement, which will rock the 
old Ship of State. There is no power nor effectiveness in passion 
or feeling, uncontrolled and uncontrollable. The stream of water 
which makes the most noise in sweeping over the bed of its chan- 
nel is the shallowest and weakest. But the stream of water which 
flows on calmly and serenely is deep and strong, and has power to 
turn a million wheels. Let not blind passion, but enlightened 
judgment, rule the hour, and then effe6live power will be wielded. 



Rev, y. Hazard Hartzell. 97 

Let reason and conscience be listened to in their appeals; for one 
is the counsellor, and the other is the preacher, in every soul. 
We need in such a period as this the calmest deliberation and the 
highest judgment. Blind passion was a leading element in devel- 
oping the French Revolution with its train of bloody scenes and 
frightful horrors. Enlightened reason, with a deep love of justice 
and liberty, was the guiding power of our fathers when they 
reared this Republic. Let their enlightened reason be ours, and 
with deep, calm feeling; with a strong, unbending purpose; with 
a firm, unwavering confidence in God, — we shall strengthen the 
Government, and bring order out of chaos. With every faculty, 
energy, and aflTeftion, consecrated in the cause of saving the 
country; with our hearts wedded to our beneficent institutions; 
with every a6l and word baptized in the living spirit of an intel- 
ligent purpose, — the nation will rise with potency and grandeur. 
Then the great car of progress will keep the track, and every 
thing in the shape of treason or secession, that shall come in con- 
tact with it, shall be ground into powder. 

Nature, yesterday, placed herself in harmony with the sorrow- 
ful condition of the people. The light of the sun was obscured 
by the dark cloud which gathered over the face of the heavens. 
The tears of nature mingled with the tears of the people, whilst 
the Genius of Liberty stood bleeding in the Capitol of the coun- 
try. The sad face of Washington peered through the gloom 
and darkness of the firmament, and looked down with pity and 
tenderness on his affli6ted children. And just so sure as the 
gloom and darkness of the firmament shall give way to light and 
glory, — light washing the feet of stooping constellations, and glory 
covering the mountains and the sea, — just so sure shall the gloom 
and sorrow of the people give way to the light and glory which 
the Almighty will bring to the nation in the birth of important 
events. 

13 



^8 The Nation's Bereavement. 



The telegraph announced, that, after the Vice-President was 
sworn into his office as Chief Magistrate yesterday, he said, " The 
duties of the office are mi^ie: I will discharge them, trusting in 
GodP This is a blast from the trumpet, which strikes the right 
way, and sends a thrill through the heart of every American 
freeman. The first is a recognition of duty, amid the evils and 
dangers of the hour; the second is a reliance upon God, who 
guides the storm and holds the sea. If Andrew Johnson will 
only be faithful to duty, and rely upon the direction and power of 
God, the nation will sweep from the valley of desolation and 
darkness up to the mountain-top of eminence and glory. We 
believe he will ; for a nation of enlightened and patriotic freemen 
will hold up his hands, encourage every noble effort, applaud 
every sublime virtue, and surround him, as it were, with a bulwark 
of sympathy. Millions of true hearts will pray for him, and 
millions of strong arms will assist him and his Cabinet, if neces- 
sary, to carry forward the Ark of Freedom. Performance of 
duty, and reliance upon God, will insure success and inaugurate 
a golden period of peace and prosperity. 

The old Ship of State is on a troubled sea this dark morning. 
The mast is draped in the emblems of mourning, because her 
Commander lies dead in the cabin. The stars in the flag are 
obscured by the black crape, which speaks of the grief which 
weighs upon the heart, and of the gloom that hangs over the 
decks. She will outweather this storm of affli6tion, and will come 
into the harbor of safety and tranquillity with thundering wheels, 
breaking the waves and dashing them into foam, and her minute- 
guns firing their sad salute. Ma}^ God, who commands the 
tempest and controls the sea, pilot the Ship of State in her 
tumultuous journey, causing the billows of commotion to sub- 
side ! 

We do not believe that God is indifferent to the sublime 



Rev. y. Hazard Hartzell. 99 

triumphs of the month, nor to the momentous issues of the hour. 
We believe with all the heart in his wisdom and goodness, and 
that he will eventually bring good to the people out of this 
national bereavement. He has a righteous purpose in the 
removal of leading men as well as in the marshalling of thrilling 
events. All may be dark with us, but all is light with him, who 
lives in the future as he lives in the present. The time for the 
removal of the President from this scene of a6tion had come, 
and he ascended to the bosom of the Infinite. The God who 
prote6ted our fathers in the dark days of the Revolution, we 
believe, will protect their children in the present time. We know 
that he is on the side of justice and humanity, and that nothing 
can defeat his great plans, mock his righteous purposes, or strike 
down his right arm. With David, we believe, as we look up 
this morning from a land filled with mourning and desolation, 
that the Almighty will save his afiSifted people. 

And here, at the close, we remember that many churches 
are celebrating to-day with a startling significance the resurrection 
of Jesus. We rejoice in this sublime ceremonial, which tends to 
keep alive in the heart the truth of immortality. And whilst we 
stand at the opened door of the empty sepulchre, rejoicing in the 
resurre6lion of Jesus, let us date from this very hour the resur- 
re6lion of the nation to a higher life, a grander power, and a 
more enduring glory. 

The Universalist, Boston, May 4, 1865. 




PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S DEATH: 

A SERMON DELIVERED AT THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN DES MOINES, 
IOWA, ON SUNDAY EVENING, APRIL 23, 186!; ; 

BY REV. D. L. HUGHES. 



2 Samuel, i. 19 : " How are the mighty fallen ! " 

THE text originally referred to Saul. He was the chosen 
King of Israel. He was appointed and anointed of God 
to his official power. He reigned forty years; and, although 
guilty of many plain violations of duty, yet as the King of Israel 
he was entitled to honor. He was also a mighty man of war. 
He had often been vi6torious over the enemies of Israel, and 
" vexed them whithersoever he turned." His " sword returned 
not empty," but was satiated with blood and spoil. As said 
David in this funeral dirge, of which the text forms a part, " He 
was swifter than an eagle, he was stronger than a lion." Yet 
he was overcome by the Philistines, and fell upon his own sword 
" in the midst of battle." The finishing stroke to his life was 
given, it seems, however, by a reckless Amalekite. This mur- 
derous a6t, he thought, was sufficient ground for boasting, and 
over it he expe6ted King David, Saul's successor, to rejoice. But, 
instead of this, David and all the men that were with him, when 
they heard it, were filled with deep sorrow. They rent their 
clothes, and mourned and wept and fasted until even. They 



Rev. D. L. Hughes. loi 

thus manifested great propriety, as well as sound wisdom and 
true noble-heartedness, in refusing to rejoice over even an enemy 
that was slain, and especially, as one high in authority having 
fallen by violent hands. Solomon says, " Rejoice not when thine 
enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth, 
lest the Lord see it, and it displease him." And again, " He 
that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished." Public losses 
are most laid to heart by men of public spirit. But this strange 
Amalekite was sorely disappointed, not only in that neither did 
David nor his people rejoice in his murderous condu6l, but also 
that in the end it afforded no ground to himself for boasting. 
"And David said unto him, ^How wast thou not afraid to stretch 
forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed ? ' And David 
called one of the young men, and said, ^Go near, and fall upon him.' 
And he smote him that he died. And David said unto him, ^ Thy 
blood be upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, 
saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed.' " This was a suitable 
punishment to the murderer of his prince; and let just such pun- 
ishment fall unerringly upon every such murderer. 

One greater than Saul in all the elements that constitute a 
wise and noble ruler was lately the Chief Executive of this nation; 
but now his lamentable death, at the hands of a fiendish assassin, 
has filled our land with gloom and sorrow. We exclaim, " How^ 
are the mighty fallen ! " 

It is wise and proper to observe God's dealings with us, and 
then to improve them by suitable meditations. 

" God's purposes are ripening fast, 
Unfolding every hour : 
The bud may have a bitter taste, 
But sweet will be the flower. 

" Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
And scan his work in vain : 
God is his own interpreter, 
And he will make it plain." 



I02 President Lincoln'' s Death. 

We live in times of great national agitation — of rapid changes 
— of stirring scenes — and of terrible events. Nor do w^e yet 
see the end. The future is big with aw^ful realities — with great 
demands upon men, and means, and efforts — and with grand re- 
sults. The year 1866, according to the expounders of prophecy, 
is to be a remarkable period; and already do we see something 
of the confli6t and trial, as well as the triumph and glory, that 
shall follow. The saying is often found true, — "Coming events 
cast their shadows before." But " The name of the Lord is a 
strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. Jehovah 
shall hide his people in his pavilion, until these calamities be 
overpast." 

The first reflection I offer from the text is. How is the Rebellion 
fallen ! This rebellion against the Government of the United 
States was inaugurated in i860, and ripened early the next year 
into full maturity. It has been well called " The Great Rebel- 
lion." Although President Lincoln was the choice of the people, 
and was constitutionally ele6ted and indu6ted into office, yet a 
multitude rebelliously declared, "We will not have this man to 
reign over us." It was an unnatural, unnecessary, and unjustifia- 
ble rebellion. It was " mighty," therefore, in its folly and madness, 
in attempting with limited resources to cope with a more formid- 
able enemy. " What king going to make war with another king 
sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten 
thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thou- 
sand?" Solomon's wisdom was certainly disregarded: he said, 
" With good advice make war." I remarked at the beginning of 
this rebellion, to a hative of Kentucky, then residing in Nevada 
Territory, that the South might bring into this contest every man, 
woman, and child she had, if she wished, and every dollar she 
possessed, and then it would only be a work of time, — she must, 
under ordinary providences, jj/2>/«f. She had undertaken a contest 



Rev. D. L. Hughes. 103 



which she was unable to carry through. The odds were fearfully 
against her. The rebellion was mighty, too, in its wickedness. Its 
secret springs were the lust of gain and the lust of power. It 
violated both civil and divine law. Its leaders had sworn alle- 
giance to the Con'Stitution and Government of the United States, 
and yet they trampled upon both with impunity. They rejected, 
too, the counsels of the -Most High. " Let every soul be subject 
unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. The 
powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, 
resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. Wherefore 
ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for con- 
science' sake." It was awfully wicked to plot the entire destruc- 
tion, if possible, of the wisest and best Government under the 
sun; to resist a mild, good, and firm Magistrate in the execution 
of the high trusts imposed upon him; and to entail upon mil- 
lions of their fellow-citizens poverty, sickness, wounds, death, and 
a multitude of sorrows. The results of this rebellion also have 
been mighty; for millions of treasures have been expended, as 
well as thousands of precious lives sacrificed, to this insatiate 
demon of war. But it has not all been in vain. God has made 
the wrath of man to praise him, and he is restraining the re- 
mainder thereof. He is accomplishing thereby his own glorious 
purposes, in behalf of suffering humanity, and of the advancement 
of his own kingdom in all the earth. 

But this mighty rebellion \^ fallen: and how great is the fall of 
it! It is utterly broken, and "dashed to pieces like a potters 
vessel." The so-called Southern Confederacy, which was so 
rapid in its growth, spreading like wildfire, and in a few months 
embraced in its mazy folds eleven States; which was mighty in 
its united strength, in its military skill, bravery and efficiency, 
and in its varied resources and self-sacrificing delusion, — has all 
gone to decay. Its great lights have been extinguished; its 



I04 President Lijtcob'Cs Death. 

boasted armies are vanquished; its most powerful generals have 
surrendered; its principal cities are captured; its stolen property 
is recovered; and its chief officers are escaping, or humbly beg- 
ging for their lives. " Ichabod " is written upon her; for her glory 
has departed. The prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled in her case: 
"Associate yourselves, O ye people! and ye shall be broken in 
pieces: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces, — gird 
yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel to- 
gether, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall 
not stand: for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me 
with a strong hand, and instru6led me that I should not walk in 
the way of this people; saying. Say ye not, a confederacy, to all 
them to whom this people shall say, a confederacy; neither fear 
ye their fear, nor be afraid. They shall look unto the earth, and 
behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and shall be 
driven ' to darkness." Destruction awaits the disobedient and 
rebellious. " But those mine enemies, which would not that I 
should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me." 
" They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For 
rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. If thou do 
that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: 
for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon 
him that doeth evil." 

While rebellion and the Confederacy are thus broken and 
fallen, the loyal part of the land — true patriots everywhere — 
have shouted their hallelujahs, and rejoiced with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory. 

2d. How is American Slavery fallen! This was once mighty, 
and was the principal cause of involving a nation of twenty-four 
millions of people in deadly confli6l, — in a civil war of unprece- 
dented magnitude and ruin. It had long existed among us. It 
had made great progress; and it was mighty in its oppression of 



Rev. D. L. Hughes. 105 



four millions of human beings. It has been upheld by the artifice 
of Satan and his ministers. Talent, wealth, and power have all 
been arra3^ed in its favor. Its influence has been felt on the floor 
of Congress, in the halls of our State Legislatures, and in many of 
our church. courts. Public opinion has not only winked at, but 
often strenuously advocated, the iniquitous system. Both reason 
and the Bible have been tortured for proofs of a divine warrant 
for its establishment, necessity, and utility. 

But the institution itself is an essential evil in human society. 
It is at variance with all the benign and redeeming principles of 
Christianity; and the only remedy for such an evil is its entire 
extirpation. This, we believe, God has purposed, and will finally 
and fully execute. The sentiment I uttered in your hearing 
nearly a year ago was true, and has been literally fulfilled thus 
far, • — that the wail of woe throughout our land was not likely to 
cease until we suitably humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord 
for all our sins; nay, it will be but extended and deepened, until 
" we break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free." Just in 
proportion as this grand consummation has been reached, has 
prosperity attended us, have light and hope and peace dawned 
upon us. The South themselves seem to have finally come to the 
conclusion, that the system of slavery can no longer be perpe- 
tuated among them; while those in the North who have long 
sympathized with it already exclaim, " It is gone ! " This is a 
remarkable attainment, and a wonderful concession for those 
parties to rnake. But all the solemn providences of God have 
tended more and more to its extirpation. His judgments have 
fallen heavily upon us for the last four years, to this end. "Be- 
cause sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, 
therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do 
evil." But " lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff" 
neck: for promotion cometh neither from the East, nor from the 

14 



1 06 Presiden t L incoMs Dea th . 

West, nor from the South; but God is the judge. He putteth 
down one, and setteth up another. For in the hand of the Lord 
there is a cup, and the wine is red: it is full of mixture, and he 
poureth out of the same; but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of 
the earth shall wring them out, and drink them." Retributive 
justice will not always sleep. Those that oppress, whether they 
be individuals, companies, or nations, shall sooner or later suffer 
vengeance. The history of all the past is sufficient proof of it. 
Pharaoh and Herod, Sennacherib and Judas, as specimens of 
individual oppressors, came to untimely and dishonored graves. 
And where are Babylon and Nineveh and T3^re and Sidon and 
Egypt and Rome? Their former glory is in the dust. And 
where is the chivalrous and slaveholding South? Scattered 
and peeled, humbled and desolate. " He that, being often 
reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and 
that without remedy." — "Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou 
wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not 
treacherously with thee! When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou 
shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal 
treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee." The 
Saviour's rule was, "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be 
judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to 
you again." The judgment of the wicked, says the Apostle Peter, 
" lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." This is in 
accordance with an unalterable law of the divine Administration. 
A day of divine reckoning for sinners of every description will 
surely come. And it has already come, and may yet still more 
fearfully come, upon our own land, for its many crimes, and espe- 
cially for its unnatural, unscriptural, and oppressive violence. 
American slavery is evidently doomed. Every vestige of it shall, 
in due time, be rooted out. Its chara6ter, condu6l, and ruin are 
vividly portrayed by the beloved disciple, in the eighteenth chap- 



Rev. D. L. Hughes. 107 



ter of Revelation, under the title of Babylon, which symbolizes 
a gross form, or system, of iniquity: "And I heard another voice 
from heaven, saying. Come out of her, my people, that ye maybe 
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remem- 
bered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and 
double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which 
she hath filled, fill to her double. How much she hath glorified 
herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give 
her; for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, 
and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in 
one day, — death and mourning and famine; and she shall be 
utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth 
her" (vs. 4-8). "And a mighty angel took up a stone like a 
great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying. Thus with vio- 
lence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be 
found no more at all" (v. 21; also vs. 22 and 23, and chap. xix. 
6). To President Lincoln, more than to any other human being, 
is the high honor due of the speedy abolition of the iniquitous 
system of American slavery. 

3d. How is aristocracy fallen in both the Old World and the 
New! How is it fallen in its opinions, in its expe6lations, in its 
wealth and influence! When the rebellion first broke out, and 
the Southern Confederacy was formed, and civil war became a 
necessity, there were those, in both England and France, who 
stood high in official circles, who, through wealth and position, 
exerted a wide-spread influence, or who wielded the powerful 
" pen of a ready writer." In all our struggles, they sympathized 
with the rebellion. They spoke words of encouragement to the 
South, and did much, by their ships and stores, and munitions of 
war, to aid her in her nefarious work of destroying our republi- 
can institutions, of the most careful growth, and of the very 



io8 President Lincoln'' s Death. 

highest order; while, at the same time, they applied to the North 
coarse and opprobrious epithets, rejoiced over our adversities, and 
declared, time and again, that w^e could never succeed in our 
endeavors to conquer the South, and that there was no hope for 
us. And their desire evidently was to recognize the independ- 
ence of the South, if they could only have seen it most in the line 
of policy so to do, and had not the masses of the common people 
prevented it. No thanks to them for the kind Providence that 
frustrated their plans, and prote6led and blessed us in the hour of 
our peril. They expected our failure, and the success of the 
armies of the South. Hence, they indulged liberally in Confede- 
rate loans: they built steamers, and loaded them with all manner 
of provisions and arms; and then, in the face of all international 
law, would run our blockades, and traffic freely with our sworn 
enemies as with our true friends. But they sowed to the wind, 
and they have reaped the whirlwind. They are sunk down in 
the pit that they made: in the net which they hid, is their own 
foot taken. " They are snared in the work of their own hands." 
Their expectations are cut off, and their wealth will perish by 
evil travail. They are wofully disappointed in God's marvellous) 
doings in our behalf, and in the divine judgments that have been 
executed against them. In America, the boasted chivalry of the 
South, and the moneyed interests of the North that were in league 
with slavery, and that were a6ting in opposition to the well-being 
of a Government that was struggling with a giant's power to pre- 
serve its very existence in the hour of fearful conflict, are alike 
brought low. " And the kings of the earth, who have commit- 
ted fornication, and lived deliciously with this mystic Babylon, 
shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the 
smoke of her burning. Standing afar oft' for the fear of her tor- 
ment, saying, Alas, alas! that gi-eat city Babylon, that mighty 
city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants 



Rev. D. L. Hus'hes. 109 



<i>' 



of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth 
their merchandise any more. The merchandise of gold and 
silver and precious stones, and of pearls and fine linen, and 
purple and silk and scarlet, and all thyine-wood, and all manner 
vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious w^ood, 
and of iron and brass and marble, and cinnamon and odors and 
ointments and frankincense, and wine and oil, and fine flour 
and wheat, and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and 
slaves, and souls of men, and the fruits that thy soul lusted after, 
are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and 
goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find. them no more 
at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by 
her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and 
wailing, and saying, Alas, alas ! that great city, that was clothed 
in fine linen, and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and 
precious stones, and pearls! for in one hour so great riches is 
come to naught." 

The harp and the viol of all those who have dealt treacher- 
ously, or who have engaged in unlawful traffic, are gone. They 
may now be hung upon the weeping willows, as mementoes of 
their owner's folly and wickedness, to be played upon only by the 
mournful requiems of the passing winds. 

4th. President Lincoln has fallen. And he was mighty. Pie 
was mighty in intellect, — mighty in soul, — mighty in great plans 
and in noble deeds, — and mighty in the affeftions, confidence, 
and honors of a great nation. And, for one, I am not ashamed 
nor unwilling to stand in my lot, and testify before men, angels, or 
devils, that I love and respe6t the name and charafter of Abraham 
Lincoln. He possessed, in a remarkable degree, strong common 
sense. He was eminently a pra6tical man. With the clearest 
logic, the nicest skill, and the fewest words, he brought all his 
ideas down to living realities. He was mild, lenient, merciful, to 



no President Lincohis Death. 

his enemies, even to a fault. He was condescending to all that 
either approached him, or wrote to him; and he was full of good- 
nature and good-humor, without compromising either his principles 
or his dignity. He scattered his judicious opinions in every direc- 
tion, and bestowed his generous sympathies upon all classes, 
the poor, as well as the rich, — upon those at home in anxiety 
and sorrow, and upon those abroad in the tented field, or at the 
hospital. And he was, I believe, a God-fearing and a God- 
honoring man, — in other words, a conscientious Christian. He 
said to those who inquired his state of mind, after the battle of 
Gettysburg, " I do love Jesus." And he ever strove, honestly and 
faithfully, to do his whole duty, whether he received the smiles 
or the frowns of his fellow-men. The Presbyterian "Banner" of 
Pittsburg, Penn., says of him, " No man in this land had a kinder 
heart. He was not afraid to acknowledge God, or to confess his 
dependence upon him. He was a iirm believer in our holy reli- 
gion, and in the blessed Bible. He had great confidence in 
prayer, and asked the prayers of all good men in behalf of the 
nation, and also in behalf of himself His second Inaugural 
Address is a most remarkable paper. No other State paper on 
record, not found in the Bible, save, possibh', one or two from 
Oliver Cromwell, has so much of the Bible and the gospel in it." 
I have been told that the Rev. Dr. R. J. Breckenridge said, when 
he first visited President Lincoln, he thought him but a moderate 
man; but afterwards, when he became better acquainted with 
him, he considered him the greatest man in America. Accord- 
ing to my humble opinion, there has been no President, since this 
nation became a Republic, that took the Presidential chair under 
so many difficulties as did President Lincoln, or that assumed 
such mighty responsibilities as were laid upon him, or that exe- 
cuted them with more straightforward wisdom, firmness, and 
success, than he did. No monarch in Europe will compare with 



Rev. D. L. Hughes. iii 



him in the mighty trusts assumed, and in the vast amount of 
labor so well done in such a short space of time. He will be 
placed, notwithstanding all the calumnies of his enemies, not 
second to, but by the side of the Father of his Country, as his 
equal, if not his superior. And future generations shall do him 
justice. And yet, this great and good man, and most justly 
honored and patriotic ruler, in the midst of all his noble plans 
and herculean labors for the welfare of coming generations, has 
fallen, in an hour of unwonted national joy, by the hands of an 
unprincipled assassin. The calamity is felt to be a personal loss 
in every loyal household. Never has grief over the death of a 
faithful public servant been so heartfelt and so universal. I may 
here appropriately introduce a part of Governor Stone's procla- 
mation to the people of Iowa, calling them to humiliation and 
prayer, in consequence of this sad event, on Thursday the 27th 
inst. He says, " In the midst of joy and triumph, the nation is 
suddenly called on to deplore the loss of its greatest and truest 
friend, — foully murdered by a traitorous hand, — stricken down 
in the fulness of life, and when strongest in the hearts of the 
people. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, — an 
honest man, an exalted patriot, — the friend of the poor and op- 
pressed, — the deliverer of his country, has been gathered to a 
martyr's grave." To this I wish to add an extra6t from an excel- 
lent address delivered at the Court, House of this city on the i6th 
inst., in my absence, by the worthy editor of our " Daily State 
Register," and upon which my eye has just rested since writing the 
above: "Men have sometimes said, in their enthusiastic admira- 
tion of Abraham Lincoln, that they believed him equal, in most 
qualities, to Washington. I believe, even be3^ond this, that in 
the discharge of the new, multiform, and weighty trusts com- 
mitted to him since he took the oath of office in 1861, he has 
developed a wiser and more comprehensive grasp of practical 



112 President LincoMs Death, 

statesmanship than any other man ever invested with governmen- 
tal power." And again : " God only knows what might have 
become of the nation had Mr. Lincoln fallen a viftim to the plots 
of traitors and murderers at an earlier period of the war. A 
contest far more prolonged, more sanguinary, and more devastat- 
ing, might have been the result, and ending, may be, in anarchy 
and ruin. But it was ordered, in the good providence of Heaven, 
that his stronof arm and wise counsels should lead the nation 
through all its darkness and its dangers, and see its flag replant- 
ed on nearly every rampart from which it had been wrenched by 
treason. His mission was a high and holy one, and nobly has it 
been fulfilled." 

It becomes us to render thanksgiving unto God, that the life 
of our valuable President was spared to his country so long. 
For more than four years, he toiled nobly, wisely, and efficient- 
ly, to deliver her from worse than Egyptian bondage. It was 
marvellous to witness his power of endurance amidst his varied 
anxieties and labors by night and by day, at home and abroad. 
Neither his physical nor mental vigor seemed to flag; and, when 
he died, it may justly be said of him, as of Moses, the deliverer 
and leader of ancient Israel, " His eye was not dim, nor his 
natural force abated." He lived just long enough to accomplish 
the work the Almighty had assigned him. With a steady, skil- 
ful hand, he managed the helm in the threatening storm, and 
condu6led the sinking State in which all our interests were em- 
barked, within sight of the harbor of peace, safety, and glory, 
before he resigned the charge. He lived to see a vile rebel- 
lion broken to pieces, a powerful Confederacy irrevocably over- 
thrown, their boasted capital taken, their most skilful general 
humbled, his enemies put to shame, the rights of a faithful 
government vindicated, and — through his own official a6ts, 
and well-laid and executed plans, forced upon him by its very 



Rev. D. L. Hughes. 113 



friends, — the death-knell given to American slavery. He fell 
on the very evening of that glorious, memorable day, — the 
14th of April, 1865, — when was re-hoisted our countr3/'s flag at 
Fort Sumter, where, just four 3^ears previous, it had been, by 
traitorous hands, madly torn down, and trailed in the dust. He 
fell thus in triumph. As Moses, after successfully leading the 
children of Israel forty years through the wilderness, amidst a 
burden of care, and much opposition and rebellion, was not per- 
mitted to enter the promised land, but had the joy of seeing it 
from the top of Pisgah; so President Lincoln, after successfully 
guiding and controlling the affairs of this great nation amidst 
peculiarly troublous times, was not permitted to see the full re- 
sults of all his plans and efforts. But he was brought so near 
the promised land of peace and safety, that, from the hill-top of 
prosperity upon which he sat, he beheld it; and the sight of it 
doubtless filled his heart with joy. 

But, although dead, Abraham Lincoln yet speaketh. He lived 
and died a great and good man. His works will long follow him, 
for the well-being of both this land and other lands. The mighty 
changes in public sentiment, and in our social and national posi- 
tion, that, in the providence of God, he has effected; and the 
wonderful deliverance of four millions of slaves that he has almost 
wrought out, — in connection with his quiet, steady, masterly 
statesmanship, — are events that will stamp their impress upon 
both the present and future generations; are events that will 
make the period of his administration one ever memorable in the 
hearts of all loyal Americans. 

But where did he fall ? In a theatre. Alas ! for the place of 
his death. It is to me the only thing that tarnishes his martyr- 
glory. And, it is said, he was so interested in the play, and so 
amused too at it, that he did not even notice the approach of his 
cowardly assassin. What a preparation for the solemn realities 

15 



114 President Lincoh-Cs Death. 

of the future state! What miserable places are theatres to fit the 
soul for death and judgment and eternity! How little restraining 
and hallowed influences, too, are thrown around even human life 
in these places of revelry and mirth! Their tendency is to im- 
morality in all its forms. Had J. Wilkes Booth been trained 
under other and higher associations, and lived in a nobler sphere 
of effort, who doubts that the useful life of our late President 
might still have been spared? Had he fallen, however, by the 
hands of violence along the highway; or in the house of God; 
or in his closet; or in his bed; or in the discharge of his public 
duties; or at his desk, penning an outline of the settlement of 
our national difficulties, — I could have had some just and noble 
satisfa6tion in the contemplation of it, such as a death in the the- 
atre can never inspire. Two reasons are offered for the Presi- 
dent's visiting this place of amusement. The first is, that he 
needed relaxation from the severe studies and close application 
of his official position; and that, had he not possessed the 
happy faculty of readily laying aside occasionally his burden of 
care, his life and health would not have been preserved to us so 
long as they were. The second reason is a benevolent one, — that 
the public papers had stated that day, that General Grant would 
be present at the theatre that evening; and, as the President knew 
that he would be absent, he went himself, although with re- 
lu6tance, so that the audience should not be entirely disap- 
pointed. Religious decision, however, might have prevailed 
against all such reasoning, and additional safety and honor been 
.secured. 

But Abraham Lincoln has fallen. The work that was given 
him to do, he finished. We deeply mourn for him, and justly 
mourn; and we shall long mourn his early and lamentable death. 
Yet we mourn as those who have hope. Although President 
Lincoln was not without his iniperfe6tions, — was not without 



Rev. D. L. Hughes. 115 



shade mingled with his light, yet we have some comforting evi- 
dence that our loss is his unspeakable, eternal gain, — that he has 
gone to that " better country " where " the wricked cease from 
troubling, and where the weary are at rest." 

And now, what shall we sa}^ of his murderer? I need only 
say, that such a wretch should not be permitted to live ; that his 
a6l was cowardly and awfully wicked, and was aimed not only 
at the head of the President, but at the very existence of our en- 
tire Government. It is the first assassination of one whom the 
people delighted to honor thus, that has ever occurred in our 
country. And, if Cain deserved to be punished sevenfold, surely 
this man deserves to be punished seventy and seven fold. He 
perhaps thought his murderous a6l would be aground of rejoicing 
and boasting, both for himself and others. Few, however, out of 
the mass have rejoiced at it. The aft was so contrary to reason 
and civilization, and so shocks the most common sensibilities of 
our nature, that it essentially forbids even the semblance of de- 
light in any well-regulated mind. Such an a6t could not have 
been approved, even if the . President had been a tj^rant, as his 
assassin so falsely declared him to be; much less when he was a 
man of such sterling qualities of mind and heart, and stood so high 
in the affe6lions, confidence, and honors of a grateful people, as was 
evidenced by his re-ele6tion to the highest office in our nation's 
gift. And the murderer will doubtless learn, before his case is 
finally settled, that it affords him no room either for rejoicing or 
boasting. Condign punishment will certainly, sooner or later, be 
visited upon his guilty head, and upon all his accomplices. But 
from the expressions that have fallen from the lips of a few per- 
sons, both male and female, we see the animus that lurks in some 
souls. All such have been the abettors of the foul deed. And, 
while I would be merciful, I cannot restrain my intense indigna- 
tion at those who, when the most atrocious murder of the age has 



ii6 President LincoMs Death. 

been committed, not only utter the most unfeeling epithets against 
the vi6lim, but openly approve of the horrible massacre. All 
such persons are " treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day 
of wrath." — "O my soul! come not thou into their secret: unto 
their assembly, mine honor! be not thou united." I would only 
add, that it would seem eminently wise and just for Andrew John- 
son, the successor of President Lincoln, and for civil officers 
everywhere, to treat all such persons as are found guilty of such 
gross violations of principle in speech and behavior, as Solomon, 
the successor of King David, treated Shimei, who shamefully re- 
viled his prince during his son's Absalom's wicked revolt. They 
should be known and marked; and, if not held really as prisoners 
at large, they should, at least, be forewarned of the certain conse- 
quences of their evil condu6t; while their names should be 
handed down, like that of Shimei, in perpetual infamy to the 
latest posterity. 

Let us now turn our eye to Vice-President Johnson. Sud- 
denly, and by " terrible things in righteousness," hath the Most 
High, who " ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whom- 
soever he will," paved the way for his promotion to the Presi- 
dency of these United States. He has now assumed the mighty 
responsibilities of his predecessor in guiding this Ship of State, 
and settling the great issues of the day. May the mantle of 
Elijah fall upon Elisha! Let our affe6tions, and our prayers, and 
our support be now extended to our new president. We regret 
his fall, and the reproach — deserved or not — brought upon him 
in his previous inaugural solemnities. But God no doubt permit- 
ted it all for wise and useful ends. Mr. Johnson was thus hum- 
bled, that he might be prepared for his exaltation, and for his wise 
and better administration. It will thus be overruled to his and 
his country's greater good. It will make him more watchful over 
himself; will secure to him more the prayers of God's people, — 



Rev. D. L. Hughes. 117 



and will thus fit him the better for discharging aright his import- 
ant duties. We have rejoiced, however, in the testimony given 
by several eminent men, W'ho knew Mr. Johnson well, of his 
almost universally corre6t principles, habits, and expressions; and 
that the fall to which we have referred was an exception to his 
established course of condu6t, caused by sickness, and a combi- 
nation of depressing circumstances. We deeply regret President 
Lincoln's death, and especially the manner of it. But his w^ork 
is done, and it was well done. And now we rejoice that Andrew 
Johnson is at the head of our national affairs; for we believe 
that God has a special work for him to do, and he will be enabled 
to execute it well also. We believe he is " come to the kingdom 
for such a time as this," and that he will not be a terror to good 
works, but will be to the evil. Hence all that have done evil, 
and shall continue to do evil, may w^ell be afraid; for he will not 
bear the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger 
to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 

It is a remarkable providence, that the almost universal senti- 
ment is, that President Lincoln fell at the most auspicious time 
both for himself and for his country, — that although slain by the 
mad spirit of secession, yet in his death the South, and all w^ho 
sympathize with it, lost their best friend; for, in the overflowing 
kindness and magnanimity of his heart, he would likely have ex- 
tended an amnesty to all the guilty, which would have satisfied 
neither law nor justice, and which would have secured to our 
land neither an honorable nor a permanent peace. While the 
same common sentiment is, that God hath raised up and empow- 
ered Andrew Johnson to do what President Lincoln could not, or 
perhaps would not, do. The stern administration of justice is 
now demanded to meet the exigencies of the times; and, if Presi- 
dent Johnson should become, under existing circumstances, 
almost an extremist in the severity of his punishment (which we 



1 18 President Lincoli^s Death. 

hope he will not) of evil doers, there would be many in the North 
who would uphold him in it. 

I here quote, as appropriate, the last of a series of excellent 
resolutions that were adopted by the Supreme Court of Iowa, 
during its late term at Davenport, on receipt of the news of Presi- 
dent Lincoln's death: — 

" Resolved^ That humanity, law, and religion unite in demanding, that there 
be visited vipon the heads of the wicked leaders of this most wanton and inex- 
cusable rebellion, which has filled up the measure of its iniquity by the murder 
of our President, as soon as the arm of the Government can lay hold of them, 
the swift and terrible punishment justly due to their enormous crimes." 

President Johnson is, I believe, the very man to execute this 
punishment. He is described by one who has long known him 
as " a man of full medium stature, compa6l, and strongly built, of 
dark complexion, and deep-set black eyes. He is of bilious tem- 
perament, strong intellect, indomitable energy, and iron will. In 
his chara6ler, I should say the strongest feature of all is that of 
stern justice, and a general hatred of all forms of aristocracy and 
oppression, and a patriotism so ardent that it amounts to a passion, 
— almost a religion. In Congress, on March 2d, 1861, speaking 
of traitors, he uttered this strong, and I may say prophetic, lan- 
guage, which in substance has been lately repeated: "Were I 
President of the United States, I would do. as Thomas Jefferson 
did, in 1806, with Aaron Burr. I would have them arrested; and, 
if convi6led within the meaning of and scope of the Constitution, 
by the Eternal God! I would execute them." These are solemn 
declarations, but eminently wise, just, and safe. Such a man is 
needed just now at the helm of State, and God has given him to 
us. Let no sickly sentimentality, no mistaken clemency, pre- 
vail. Let it be written upon our inmost heart, as with " the point 
of a diamond," that mercy to the ringleaders of this awfully 
wicked rebellion is cruelty to two hundred thousand of our brave 



Rev. D. L. Hzighcs. 119 



officers and soldiers, who have fought, bled, and died to win our 
battles; cruelty to the thousands of weeping widows and helpless 
orphans, who have sacrificed their all to their country's cause; 
cruelty to loyal Americans everywhere, who have poured out 
their treasures, if not their blood, like water, to preserve our 
national existence, to preserve the honor of our national flag, and 
to hand down to our children, and to our children's children, 
all of our free institutions; and cruelty to all nations in destroy- 
ing the last hope of any noble example in successfully main- 
taining civil and religious liberty for the welfare of enslaved 
millions. 

When President Johnson says, " To the honest boy, to the 
deluded man, who has been deceived into the rebel ranks, I would 
extend leniency; I would say, renew your support to the Govern- 
ment, and become good citizens, — and the leaders I would hang; " 
I say, his sentence is just, — his decision is right. The honor of 
violated law, human and divine, must be vindicated; merited 
punishment must be infli6ted as an example to deter others from 
similar crimes: the public sense of justice demands it; and it is 
essential to the permanent peace and prosperity of our nation. 
" Righteousness and peace " must embrace each other. And with 
this decided, certain punishment staring the rebels full in the face, 
I would demand of them an tmconditional surrender and submis- 
sion to " the powers that be." Nor do I think that any other 
terms of settlement of our national difficulties should be offered 
by our Government to any rebel civilian, rebel officer, or rebel 
private, or be accepted by our military authorities, but that of an 
unconditional surrender. No property reserved, no diftation per- 
mitted, no arms granted, no paroles and escorts promised. They 
must yield unconditionally; their proud and rebellious spirit, as 
well as their military power, must be broken; the fatal do6lrine 
of State Rights being superior to Federal authority must be anni- 



I20 President Line olij!s Death. 

hilated, — otherwise, peace is a delusion. Otherwise, a multitude 
of rebels — like Judge Campbell, of Richmond, Va., and General 
Robert E. Lee, of the late rebel army — will still insolently attack 
our Government; will arrogantly claim exemption from all pun- 
ishment for the most ambitious and causeless arch - traitors 
w^ho have deluged our land with blood and tears, and will still 
strive to rule the destinies of our country. But we cannot bear 
to lose all the treasure that has been expended, and all the tears 
that have been shed, and all the blood that has been spilled for 
the last four years in this wicked war, to perpetuate our national 
life, for nothing. No, no! Never! Far better will it be to pro- 
tra6l the war, if necessary, four years longer, until our work is 
fully done; to subjugate the South entirely, if necessary to crush 
the wicked spirit of rebellion; better waste the inhabitants thereof 
almost totally, as Benjamin of old was wasted for first winking at 
a grievous crime, and then proudly defying their brethren, the 
children of Israel, who justly warred against it; yea, better, as 
a last resort, arm every slave, and give them not only their free- 
dom for fighting for their own and our country's deliverance from 
every species of bondage, but also the lands upon which they 
fight, many of which are justly their own, as they have been pur- 
chased b}^ the toil and the blood and the sale of their forefathers 
and of themselves, as their future homes, and let them rule them 
as they please, always, of course, under the control of the national 
Government, with which Government they would cheerfully co- 
operate, and to which they would prove also a strong bulwark. 
All this is a sad alternative. But, if the rebel South drive us to 
it, the whole work is feasible. It will certainly be easier to do all 
this, than it was to do what has already been done. Let there 
be, then, no wavering. Then will this nation have safety and 
peace; and we fear that she never will until her kingdom thus 
comes. 



Rev. D. L. Hughes. 121 



Human governments are wisest and safest in their principles 
and actions in proportion as they pattern after the divine govern- 
ment. But God carries on, by varied and adapted agencies, a 
relentless and perpetual war against every rebel sinner, just in 
proportion to his guilt of violated light and law, until he 3aelds an 
unconditional submission. To be saved, he must give up every 
thing, and yield to God's own terms, before the contest ceases. 
Just so with our Government. It should continue its war against 
every rebel. North or South, without wavering and without ces- 
sation, until they yield an unconditional submission to the right- 
fully constituted authorities of the nation. And if any diiference 
is to be made in the degree of punishment infli6led, or in the favor 
shown, it should be in behalf of the deluded privates, rather than 
of the guilty leaders who have taught rebellion and ruin, and who 
deserve as justly to be certainly punished as did J. Wilkes Booth 
deserve it for his villanous murder. 

And, as Jehovah makes' rebel sinners " willing in the day of 
his power " to submit to his commands, just so will this Govern- 
ment, aided by that same Almighty Power, effectually subdue the 
spirit and the strength of that people who have so madly and 
so wickedly dared to rebel against its wise and just authority. 
Then will our triumphant and final song be, " Not unto us O 
Lord ! not unto us, but unto thy name, give glory, for thy mercy 
and for thy truth's sake." — " This is the Lord's doing: it is mar- 
vellous in our eyes." 

I will close with three pra6lical remarks : — 

I St. Natiojial existence, national law, national order, must be 
preserved at all hazards, — at the risk and expense of life, limb 
and treasure. Those who violate or trample upon either will 
sooner or later be surely and sorely punished, the abettors as well 
as the perpetrators of deeds of enormous wickedness. Let all 
rebels, then, and murderers, and lawless and disobedient persons 

16 



122 President Lincoln'' s Death. 

beware; for the Chief Magistrate and civil officers everywhere do 
not bear the sword in vain. 

2d. Let every man be a loyal man, — loyal to his country 
and loyal to his God. Let him feel his personal responsibility 
to man, and also his personal responsibility to God, — his duty to 
submit to and obey both human and divine governments. Let 
him " render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto 
God the things that are God's." Let him be a true patriot, and 
also a true Christian. They are not inconsistent. And he who 
loves God supremely, and his neighbor as himself, will love his 
country and government also. Wherefore " let every soul be 
subje<5l unto the higher powers, — not only for wrath, but also for 
conscience' sake." 

3d. If the mighty fall what shall become of the weak? If 
Princes lie in the dust, and go down to the dark grave, where 
shall the lowly be found ? The lesson taught each of us from 
these sad refle6lions is, " Prepare to meet thy God," whenever 
and however he comes. ^^Be ye also ready; for, in such an hour 
as ye think not, the Son of man cometh." 

Des Moines, lotva, Daily State Register, May 11, 1865. 




DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN: 

HALL, BATTLE CREEK, MICIL, APRIL ig, lbb5 , 

BY REV. MOSES HULL. 



OUCH deep and universal mourning as there is to-day the 
S history of the world has never recorded. Every loyal hear 
beats heaJly; every voice speaUs in a subdued --; every pulp. 
in the land is draped in deepest mournmg. ^^e crape on the 
door of the house of every loyal American fails to il ustrate 
the grief of the American people. We mourn not only the loss 
*f ofe who filled the highest office in the P-^ ^^^^^ j^^f „"f 
people to bestow, but the greatest man, absolutely the greatest, ot 
the ntn teenth century has fallen. Such mental wads such grie 
and indignation, as come to us from all portions of the Uni ed 
States and Canada, show the warmth of the attachment of the 
p opTe for their Martyred statesman. No event withm our 
nai's history has excited such deep and heartfelt emotions of 

'"Tlnguage fails to exhibit our loss or depia the <-e ch^raae 
of him for whom we mourn. An adequate 'dea of the magna 
niJ^tv and unselfish patriotism of our lamented President cannot 
be gen n:r can an'y eulogy place him in a higher position in 
the hearts of the American people. 



124 Death of President Li7tc obi. 

The following, from the Chicago "Tribune," so perfe6lly ex- 
presses our feelings, that we cannot resist the temptation to 
quote it : — 

" Lincoln has been indeed a mild, loving father of his country ; and 
whether in the future it be possible to produce his equal, most certainly not in 
the past or in the present has a ruler ever lived who has adted with one-hun- 
dredth part of the magnanimity displaj^ed uniformly by our late President. 
Well may the rebels expedt to hear from the lips of Johnson the reply made by 
Rehoboam to the old men, ' My father did beat you with whips ; but I will 
chastise you with scorpions.' Subsequent events will show that they have 
jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire. The deed was altogether without 
excuse, — equalled only in enormity by the intent of Satan to pluck the Almighty 
from his throne. 

" Well may the nation weep, — fountains of tears. In Abraham Lincoln, we 
have lost one whose place can never be filled, either in the Executive chair or in 
our aftedlions. Who but he could have brought us safely through this fiery 
trial, landing us on terra Jirma^ yet so gently that we scarcely feel the shock? 
Our kind father and wise counsellor is gone. Our grief at his loss to ourselves 
is so great, that we can scarce spare a thought to his bereaved family. We 
were all his children. All loved and guarded equally by him. In his loss, we 
mourn a parent. His own family scarce loved him more dearly than the great 
heart of the American people." 

Yes, the greatest and best of men has been taken from us. 
He has fallen while in the zenith of his glory. Indeed, we only 
express the opinion we have for years entertained, when we say, 
that a glory belongs to Lincoln, compared with which, that of 
all other statesmen fades like the lustre of the stars before the 
rising sun. 

Washington, the Father of this Republic, was no more true, 
noble, and patriotic, than was Lincoln, its Saviour and Redeemer. 

" How are the mighty fallen ! " Lincoln is gone. It remains 
for us to trace his history, that we may realize the extent of our 
loss. Loss, did I say? I take it back. Lincoln is neither dead 
nor asleep. He is alive to-day, and as earnestly and patriotically 



Rev. Moses Hull. 125 



working for the cause of human freedom as when he Avas here in 
the flesh. He has only ceased to preside over a Congress of 
mortals, to join the band of immortal statesmen. He has entered 
the heavenly Congress, and works as untiringly in behalf of the 
stars and stripes, as during the days of his earthly tabernacle. 

HIS HISTORY. 

I have only time to give a synopsis of his life, which I have 
condensed from the daily journals. 

He was born of poor parents, in La Rue County, Kentucky, 
in the year 1809. In 18 16, when he was eight years old, his father 
moved to Indiana. He perhaps received in all near one year's 
educating. In 1830, he removed to Illinois. After a trip to New 
Orleans, on a flat-boat, he became a clerk in a store at New Salem, 
Menard ( then Sangamon ) County. On the breaking-out of the 
Black-Hawk war, in 1832, he joined a volunteer company, and was 
elected its captain. He served for three months in the campaign, 
and on his return was nominated as a Whig candidate for the 
legislature; but, the county being Democratic, he was defeated, 
though his own ele6tion-distri6t gave him two hundred and 
seventy-seven votes, with only seven against him. He was after- 
wards appointed postmaster at New Salem, and then began to 
study law. During the same time, he practised surveying, 
although without any instru6lion beyond what he had obtained by 
reading a single treatise on that subject. In 1834, he was ele6led 
to the legislature, by the highest vote ever cast for any candidate; 
and was re-ele6ted in 1836, '38, '40. In 1836, he obtained a 
license to pra6lise law; and in April, 1837, removed to Spring- 
field, and went into partnership with Hon. T. Stuart. He rose 
rapidly in distinction in his profession, and was especially eminent 
as an advocate. In 1844, he was presidential elector in favor 
of Henry Clay, and canvassed the entire State, and the State of 



126 Death of President Lincoln. 



Indiana, in his behalf, addressing large audiences with marked 
success. 

In 1846, he was ele6ted a Representative to Congress, from 
the Central Distri6l of Illinois. In Congress, he voted for the 
reception of antislavery memorials and petitions ; for the motions 
of Mr. Giddings for committees to inquire into the constitution- 
ality of slavery in the Distri6t of Columbia, and the expediency 
of abolishing the slave trade in the Distri6l, and other like propo- 
sitions. He voted for the Wilmot Proviso, every time it was 
presented to the House. In January, 1840, he offered to the 
House a scheme for abolishing slavery in the Distri6t, by com- 
pensating the slaveholders from the Treasury of the United 
States, provided a majority of the people of the Distri6t should 
vote to accept the proposal. He opposed the annexation of 
Texas, but voted for the Loan Bill to enable the Government to 
defray the expenses of the Mexican war. Mr. Lincoln was a 
member of the Whig National Convention of 1848, and urged 
the re-nomination of General Taylor. In 1849, he was a candidate 
for the United-States Senate; but the legislature was Democratic, 
and ele6ted General Shields. After the expiration of his congres- 
sional term, Mr. Lincoln applied himself to his profession, until 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise called him again into the 
political arena. He entered with energy into the work which 
was to decide the choice of a senator in place of General Shields; 
and it was mainly due to his exertions, that the triumph of the 
Republican party, and the ele6tion of Judge Trumbull to the Sen- 
ate, was attributed. At the Republican National Convention in 
1856, which nominated General Fremont for the Presidency, the 
Illinois delegation unanimously urged the nomination of Mr. Lin- 
coln for the Vice Presidency. The contest between Mr. Lincoln 
and Judge Douglas, in 1858, is familiar to all, and need not be 
recapitulated. It is only necessary to say, that, notwithstanding 



Rev. Moses Htill. 



127 



the friends of Judge Douglas secured a majority of the legisla- 
ture, the popular vote was in favor of Mr. Lincoln by over four 
thousand majority. 

On the eighteenth day of May, i860, the Republican National 
Convention, which assembled in Chicago, nominated Mr. Lincoln 
for President of the United States, and that nomination was rati- 
fied by the people at the following November ele6tion. The 
history of the dead patriot and statesman from that period to 
the hour when he fell a martyr to the cause of human liberty is 
as familiar to the world as household words. 

It might not be amiss here to say a word with regard to the 

CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH HE TOOK THE CHAIR. 

For years, the antislavery sentiment had been gaining ground, 
insomuch that the South had fully decided to use the first oppor- 
tunity to secede from the Government. This decision was made 
more than thirty years ago, long before Lincoln was ever thought 
of for President. His election, of course, gave them the desired 
pretext. When he took the chair, some of the States had already 
rebelled, and prepared for open hostilities. Three-fourths, yea, 
nine-tenths of the military strength of this nation was in the 
South. He enters upon his duties with a gigantic rebellion on his 
hands, without an army, without a navy, in short, without any 
resource whatever to extinguish the fires of the greatest rebellion 
since the fabled " Lucifer," " the son of the morning," rebelled in 
heaven. With all this on his hands, Lincoln undertakes to pilot 
the Ship of State through the storm. Has he succeeded? Let the 
history of the nation tell. 

Our lamented President entered upon his duties with an 
unflinching determination to put the rebellion down, and yet with 
a leniency such as human history never before recorded. To the 
South he said in his Inaugural Address, — 



128 Death of President Lincoln. 

" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the 
momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. 

" You can have no conflidl without being yourselves the aggressoi's. You 
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government ; while I shall have 
the most solemn one to ' preserve, prote(5l, and defend it.' " 

What more could they ask? With the positive pledge that 
the Government would not assail them, who could but think 
that they would ground their weapons.^ But the old proverb, 
" The gods first make mad those whom they would destroy," was 
good in their case. How pleadingly our President besought them 
to desist from their hellish designs! Hear him once more: — 

" I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be 
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of 
afledtion. 

" The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot 
grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet 
swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by 
the better angels of our nature." 

Let copperheads, who have howled so long and vociferously 
about Lincoln and " Lincoln's war," " Nigger war," &c., read and 
and re-rea.d this, and hide their faces for very shame. Let them 
know that t/ieir 7nisreprese7itations of the patriotic Abraham have 
spilled his blood; their jourjials and speeches have stimulated such 
men as Booth to deeds they never would dared to have done under 
other circumstances. Let them know that they are responsible 
for the death of our President. Their misrepresentations of 
Lincoln and his administration are enough to make " e'en a devil 
blush." 

Mr. Lincoln's histor}'-, for the past five years. Is known and 
read by all men. I need not repeat it: only let me show that he 
has fairly earned the title of the Emancipator. 

1st. In March, 1862, he sent a message to Congress recom- 
mending ^^ gradual emancipation^'' 



Rev. Moses Htill. 



129 



2d. In April following, he consummated an a6l which had 
been on his mind for many years; viz., abolished slavery in the 
District of Columbia: thus permitting thousands, who had never 
before drawn a free breath, to say, " We are free ;'^'' "for the first 
time in our lives, we own ourselves." 

3d. Follow him but six months further, to Sept., 1862, 
and he makes known his determination to issue an order, on the 
first of January following, freeing every slave in the rebel States. 
"Will he do it?" was in everybody's mouth. "He won't dare," 
said some of the Copperheads; " there will be a bigger rebellion in 
the North than there is in the South." — " It's unconstitutional," 
said others; while many of us, who had for years been praying 
that slavery's chains might be broken, feared he would shrink 
from the task. But when the first of January arrived, true to his 
proclamation, he " breaks every yoke," looses " the heavy bur- 
dens," and says to the oppressed, " Go free P Truly, future gene- 
rations will call him blessed ; and those who have hitherto been 
manacled by the galling chains of slavery can regard him as no 
less than their Redeemer. 

Here permit us to take our leave of the life of the President, 
and for a few moments speak of his death. What shall we say 
of his murderer, — the fiend, who in cold blood robbed him of the 
remainder of his earthly existence, and our country of its Chief 
Magistrate and best man? Oh the blackness of his crime! One 
before which all others sink into insignificance. Even the crucify- 
ing of Jesus whitens into innocence, compared with the assassina- 
tion- of Mr. Lincoln. Christ had denounced wrath upon his cru- 
cifiers, and there was reason to fear that he would overturn their 
kingdom. Not so in this case; for, sustaining and q.\^w purifying 
the best government in the world, our President lays down his life. 

We feel justified in saying, that Judas, who betrayed his Lord, 
was an angel of light compared with — shall I say it ? I will ! — 

17 



130 Death of President Lincoln. 

the demon damned who robbed us of our more than immortal 
President. 

Are there tears, or is there blood enough, in all the Southern 
Confederacy to make atonement? No! As well speak of the 
viper expiating the crime of stinging an angel to death. The 
Chicago " Tribune " well says, " There can be no palliation, no 
mitigation, of the terrible deed. It was premeditated, cold- 
blooded, devilish; without the shadow of excuse, and perpetrated 
without the incentive of offence. History, ancient or modern, 
whether in the days of Csesar, or in the days of Borgia, furnishes 
no parallel to his bloody deed. He has damned himself to eter- 
nal infamy, and will live in history linked with "^the fool who 
fired the Ephesian fane,' — a name to be shuddered at, to be 
mentioned only with horror. His death will be no compensation 
for our loss, but will carry with it one consolation, — that the 
world has one less monster." 

But our President has passed on. Gone to his angel home. 
How I should like to have stood by his bedside, and mingled 
my tears with those of statesmen who sobbed aloud to know that 
he must leave them ! 

Yea; rather how much greater the privilege to be clairvoyant 
and claraudient, and see him pass from wife, children, states- 
men, and friends below to join the holy hosts of martyrs, and hear 
their glad greeting and welcomings! Oh, think of the happy 
meeting, as the spirits of '76 gather around him! As the "gates " 
open, and the "everlasting doors" to the eternal world swing back, 
I seem to see Washington clasp his hand, and welcome him to 
that better " country " where all anxiety is gone, and he is for ever 
beyond the gunshot of the traitor, or sabre of the assassin. 

Adams, Monroe, Hancock, Jefferson, Jackson, Clay, Webster, 
and Douglas, all bid him join their Congress, and work in a sphere 
where his labors will be crowned with tenfold the success ever 



Rev. Moses Hull. 131 



known upon earth. Is that all ? No ! I see " Old John Brown," 
— who went before Lincoln, as John the Baptist went before Jesus 
the Nazarene, — whose soul has been marching on for six years, 
welcome Lincoln as slavery's last martyr. But this is not all: see 
the tens of thousands of soldiers, whose blood has stained every 
battle-field in the South, who died to save their country from the 
traitorous hands of those who would trample the Stars and Stripes 
under their feet, give him the right hand of fellowship, and wel- 
come him to their celestial land. But a more affedling sight is 
yet before us : the poor slave, whose bitter experience tells better 
than all things else the horrors and degradation of slavery, ap- 
proaches the Emancipator, — the last to drink the bitter cup of 
death in consequence of the institution; and, as he throws his arms 
around his neck, I hear him cry out, ^^ Br ess de Lord!'''' and thous- 
ands freed by his proclamations, join him in bidding him welcome 
to the " land of the free." The happy greeting of one freed slave 
is more than enough to repay for all blood that has been shed to 
get slavery out of the way. 

RESULTS. 

In the massacre of our President, the South have dashed the 
chalice containing the healing balm of mercy to atoms. Justice 
takes its place ; and to-day the olive branch, which was yesterday 
kindly vouchsafed, is withdrawn: the only cord of mercy has 
been severed by their own hands. Now that we have learned that 
mercy means nothing less than nursing a viper to sting us to 
death, the North is ready to say, in language backed up by every 
drop of Northern blood, if need be, "Let justice, stern and harsh, 
have its way." In the language of another, we say. Yesterday we 
were, with the late President, for lenity; he had been so often 
right and wise; he had so won upon our confidence that we were 
preparing to follow and support him in a policy of conciliatory 



132 Death of President Lincoln. 

kindness : to-day we are with the people for justice. Henceforth, 
let us treat this hell-born outbreak of slaveholding fiends as a 
rebellion. We ask not vengeance, but the justice which Abra- 
ham Lincoln's clemency would have withheld. 

They have slain their mediators, their best friends; now let 
them feel the force of righteous, retributive justice. They have 
been barbarous before, — at Fort Pillow, at Andersonville, and at 
Libby Prison. They have massacred our troops after surrender, 
starved our prisoners, broken their paroles, andrfought us without 
exchange; they have laid plots to burn and massacre in our 
Northern cities; they have sunk to every depth of meanness. 
There is no manliness, no chivalry, no honor in them. From 
the fugitive Jeff. Davis, the royal Bengal tiger of this " den of 
uncaged beasts," down to the meanest Copperhead whelp that 
yelps about " tyrant Lincoln " and the " nigger war," they are all 
inspired by the same accursed spirit of murderous hatred for 
every thing that confli6ts with human slavery, and for everybody 
who thinks the Lord Christ better than Legree. Booth, who 
committed this murder, is but the representative of the class 
which made up the American Knights, Sons of Liberty, and 
other similar organizations. He was no more a Southerner than 
most of them. Born and bred in Baltimore, living among pro- 
slavery Democrats before the war, and among Copperheads since, 
he is just enough of a rebel to be a good sample of Copperhead- 
ism, — no more, no less. All he knows of politics is "to curse 
the nigger, and curse the Lincoln Government." This is the 
whole rebel and Copperhead creed. Whoever has this creed is 
fiitted, in all except courage, to do as Booth did. He hates lib- 
erty, and loves despotism. So far from hating the negro, this very 
class like slavery, mainly because it gives them a black mistress, 
and black servants at each elbow. The negro enslaved, they 
love, and will die rather than give him up. The negro free, 



Rev. Moses Hull. 133 



they hate; and would exterminate not only him, but every white 
man who believes he ought to be free. So, then, it is not the 
negro, but his freedom, that the}^ hate; not the black man, but 
slavery, that they love. This proslavery creed is a crime against 
huinan nature, — an index of depravity in the heart. Whoever 
entertains it is an enemy of mankind, and lacks only Booth's 
courage to commit his crime. 

CONCLUSION. 

Lincoln still works. Think you he could be happy shut up 
in a heaven, " beyond the bounds of time and space," where there 
is nothing for him to do .^ No ! His voice will ring more melo- 
diously for freedom in the future than it ever has in the past. He 
will still blaze out the way for patriots: let us only follow in his 
footsteps, and soon our country will arise in a splendor hitherto 
unknown. As the blood of our martyred soldiers enriches the 
fields of the South, so will the lives lost enrich us in true Repub- 
licanism; and when our country shall have been redeemed, 
without the stain of slavery upon it, and we shall have learned 
the w^orth of a redeemed Republic by its cost, then will we be 
prepared as never before to appreciate the beauties of a Republi- 
can Government. Then, and not till then, will a halo of glory 
settle upon our country, with which the glory of the past will 
compare as the dim, flickering taper upon the hearthstone com- 
pares with the splendor of the noonday sun. 

" His toils are past, his work is done, 
His spirit fully blest; 
He fought the fight, the vidtorj won, 
And entered into rest. 

Then let our sorrows cease to flow, 

God has recalled his own ; 
But let our hearts in every woe 

Still say, ' Thy will be done.' " 

The Progressive Age, Battle Creek, Mich. 



NATIONAL JOY AND SORROW COMMINGLED: 

A SERMON DELIVERED IN THE SIXTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, 

PENN., JUNE I, 1865 ; 

BY REV. GEORGE JUNKIN, D.D., 

LATE PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE, VA. 



Jer. ix. I : " Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might 
weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people ! " 

A NATION'S calamities, like an individual's, spring not up out 
of the dust. They are not a spontaneity in any infidel sense 
of the word; not accidents, as the world of unthinking men talk. 
There are none such in the Government as God. They have their 
root in sin, and hence the}^ spring up. Hath there been evil in 
the city, and the Lord hath not done it.'' Ph3^sical evils are effects 
of moral delinquency. By the former, the Governor of the world 
expresses his abhorrence of the latter; and here we have the 
elementary idea of moral government. Destroy the connection 
between sin and suffering, and you shake the very foundations of 
social order; and, if these be destroyed, what can ever the right- 
eous do? Where are there any guarantees for government? 
Hence the divine declaration, " Though hand join in hand, the 
wicked shall not go unpunished." Social bodies, even those most 
in favor with God, cannot be exempt from this law. " You only 
have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I 



Rev. George Junkin., D.D. 135 

punish you for all your iniquities." Sooner or later, yet in this 
world, national sins must be punished. The Lord, who is the 
Governor among the nations, must and will vindicate in manifest- 
ing his justice. We have greatly offended, or we would not be as 
we are this day. 

April 14, A. D., 1865, — what a day of joy and exultation! 
Twenty millions of people send forth the glad sounds of thanks- 
giving to the Lord; for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse 
and his rider hath he cast into the sea. 

April 15, A. D., 1865, — what a day of wailing, lamentation, and 
woe! Twenty-five millions of people fall down in the dust before 
the offended Majesty of heaven, and send forth the agonizing 
shriek, "How long, Lord? Wilt thou be angry for ever? Why 
doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture ? " 
Oh, what a change was that! How sudden! how unexpected! 
how appalling! From the effulgent noon of a nation's glory and 
exultation, in view of union and peace, into a dark midnight of 
worse than Egyptian gloom and sorrow and wailing! 

Now, w^hence comes all this, under the government of a kind 
and gracious sovereign ? " Behold, the Lord's hand is not short- 
ened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot 
hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your 
God; and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not 
hear." (Isa. lix. i, 2.) And the prophet proceeds to point out 
a variety of grievous offences against the divine law. Some of 
these are chargeable upon our people and nation. 

I St. Our tendency to idolize our public men, or rather the offices 
which they hold, and to glory in their wisdom and prowess, and 
thus to forget Him who assures us, " The wicked shall be turned 
into hell, and all the nations that forget God." (Ps. ix.) We have 
not kept it before our mind, that our fathers " got not the land in 



136 National Joy and Sorrow commmgled. 

possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save 
them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy 
countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them. Thou art 
my king, O God!'' (Ps. xliv. 3, 4.) Beyond doubt, we have 
sinned in this our confident boasting. 

2d. We have insulted the Son of God, "by whom kings reign 
and princes decree justice; by whom princes rule, and nobles, 
even all the judges of the earth." (Prov. viii. 15, 16.) We have 
said, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their cord from 
us." (Ps. ii. 3.) Virtually denying, that "unto us a child is 
born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon 
his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 
the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. 
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no 
end upon the throne of David." (Isa. ix. 6, 7.) This divine 
Mediator and King we have offended in various ways. 

I St. In the grand bond of our National Union. The Constitu- 
tion of the United States contains no distinct acknowledgment of 
the being of a God. It is simply atheistical in the generic sense 
of the word. There is no God at all in it. And among the most 
aggravating points of this atheism is the fa6t, that many of the 
sovereign people, and not a few men professing piety, glory in 
this fa6l, and defend it. Under the delusion of the Devil's political 
maxim, " Religion has nothing to do with politics," they profess to 
justify this atheism. Nor is this a simple ignoring of God. On 
this ground, many attempt to apologize for the omission. It is, 
say they, an inadvertence.* It does not amount to a denial or 
rejection of God. After all, the Convention meant no offence. 



* This was the case with the date, ''in the vear of our Lord; " a mere inadvertence, 
although the most like a recognition of any thing in it. 



Rev. George Junkin^ D.D, 137 

To this we reply, What they did must interpret their intention. 
They eje6ted God. He had been recognized four several times in 
the Declaration; viz., in the first paragraph; in the second para- 
graph; and twice in the last, the Declaration proper, — " appealing 
to the Supreme Judge of the world," " with a firm reliance on 
the protection of divine Providence." So the Xlllth Article of 
Confederation expressly recognizes " the great Governor of the 
world," and refers to his influence upon the hearts of the legisla- 
tors, in their inclination to adopt the Articles. Moreover, the 
fathers in the Continental Congress provided for, and attended to, 
prayers at their daily deliberations. Not so the men who framed 
the Constitution : they had no prayers mixed up with their assem- 
bly. The contrary has been asserted, but erroneously. Franklin 
made a motion — rather a suggestion — to invite the clergy, and 
open the sessions with prayer, as the fathers had done. General 
Hamilton could not see its use; made some difficulty: an 
adjournment soon took place, and ]Madison tells us the matter was 
never again called up. Yes, God was not ignored all through the 
doings of the Continental Congress, and in the Declaration and 
Articles. But " Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked; " the nation for- 
got God, and ejected him. This was undoubtedly — though we 
cannot here stop to prove it — the efle6t of French infidelity, 
which was eating into the vitals of the body politic. 

2d. Another and quite a recent insult has been offered to the 
Son of God, — the appointment to a chaplaincy in Congress of a 
perstjn of a se6f; who, but week before last, in New York, 
declared their denial of Christ as ^Mediator, and in offensive terms 
deny that "this is the true God and eternal life." Thus the 
nation, by its representatives, voted to pull down Messiah's 
throne, and reject him as Governor among the nations. This 
oflence is aggravated by the consideration that this more than 
semi-infidel sedt is one of the smallest in the nation. 

18 



138 National Joy and Sorrow commingled. 

3d. Our theatrical exhibitions are a stench in the nostrils of 
high Heaven. These dens of pollution, these synagogues of Satan, 
colle6t in and around them the concentrated abomination of all 
immorality and crime. Into these vestibules of the abyss, thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of our 3^outh of both sexes are 
enticed and inveigled by all the arts and wiles of the Adversary of 
souls, aided by all the embellishments of art and even of science. 
Places of amusement are planned and operated to occupy a mid- 
dle region between the house of God, and the hold of demons, — 
between the church and the theatre. The same building accom- 
modates a religious meeting or a musical exhibition to-night, and 
the genuine orgies of the Evil One to-morrow night. Thus, the 
revulsion of the Christian heart, with which less than half a cen- 
tury ago all pious people turned away, is abated; and the public 
conscience, even of church-goers, is often kept in an equipoise 
between the church itself and the opera; between the choir with 
David's harp, and the full swell of the orchestra; between Jesus 
Christ and Shakspeare. Are there no professors of religion in 
this City of Love who prefer Romeo and Juliet to John's Gospel } 
or Booth and Forrest to Paul and Peter ? 

Now, a great aggravation of these sins is found in the general 
fa6l, that the theatres are liberally supported, and all places of 
amusement are crowded with fascinated listeners; and that, too, 
while half the people of the land are draped in the habiliments 
of mourning. How unseemly all this! If Nero must fiddle 
while Rome was burning, must we Christians dance while the 
nation bleeds? 

4th. Profanity, drunkenness, gambling, sabbath-breaking, and 
debauchery prevail over all the land; but, above all, in the army 
and navy. Many hundreds, indeed, have been dismissed the ser- 
vice for these crimes alone; but the expurgation has been only 
partial, and this by reason of the humiliating fa6t that some very 



Rev. George yunkin, D.D. 139 

distinguished officers indulge in some of these criminal pra6lices, 
and thus seem to be above law. Indeed, the sentiment, that 
swearing and intemperance are militar}^ necessities, is not unfre- 
quently hinted at, if not distin6lly avowed. There is too much 
reason to believe that alcohol has destroyed more lives in this 
war than gunpowder. 

5th. A fifth class of grievous sins against high Heaven is found 
connected with the avaricious spirit, engendering frauds against 
the Government. Sharpers, thieves, and plunderers of public 
property have taken advantage of irregularities in trade, and com- 
mitted depredations that would make a Hottentot blush. 

All kinds of rascality, if perpetrated against the public trea- 
sury, have been almost vindicated as smart and praiseworthy. 
Such evils are nevertheless hateful: "For among my people are 
found wicked men : they lay wait, as he that setteth snares ; they 
set a trap ; they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are 
their houses full of deceit; therefore, they are become great, and 
waxen rich. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord; 
shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? " (Jer. v. 
26-29.) 

Such are the moral but adequate procuring causes of our 
nation's calamities; such delinquencies must bring down the 
wrath of God. Accordingly, what amazing commingling of 
emotions result: — 

I St. High joy. 

2d. Deep sorrow. 

3d. Burning indignation. 

4th. Subdued humility. 

Analagous cases are suggested. Let us note a few: — 

I St. Henry of Navarre, the fourth Henry, and the noblest king 



140 National yoy and Sorrow commingled. 

that ever sat upon the French throne. From principle, he was a 
Huguenot; but from polic}', after the St. Bartholomew's massacre, 
he threw himself into the arms of the Popish party, secretly 
however assuring the Huguenots that he was their friend, and 
would protect them. He had been solemnly warned by the 
Huguenot captain, that, if with his mouth he renounced the Pro- 
testant religion, God would smite him on the mouth, and destroy 
his life. Accordingly, whilst all things seemed settling down 
into a prosperous condition, he was smittten in the mouth, and 
killed, by a dagger in the hand of a madman named Ravaillac, 
w^hilst riding in the ro3'al coach in the streets of Paris. Thus he 
was snatched away from the highest glories of what appeared to 
promise a long and illustrious reign, — a sovereign of the rarest 
qualities, and of most hopeful promise. 

2d. General James Wolfe, in like manner, closed a short and 
brilliant career on that illustrious day, when, on the Plains of 
Abraham, he sold his life for deathless renown. In the ebbing 
of life, his dying ear caught the exclamation, " They fly, they fly ! " 
He asked, "Who fly?" — "The French, the French !" — " Then 
I die happy!" and he breathed out his mighty soul in the very 
arms of a vi6lory which swept away French power from a conti- 
nent, and secured North America for ever to free government 
and the Protestant religion. Oh, how difficult to bring our feel- 
ings into quiet subje6tion to the ways of Providence in such 
mysterious dispensations! Why not spare Wolfe and Lincoln 
to enjoy their triumph.^ But peace! be still, and know that I 
am God. 

3d. In the days of Charles Stuart, the second profligate prince 
of that name who disgraced the British throne, the Duke of 
Ormond was the King's viceroy for Ireland, where he had man- 
aged the trust with great wisdom and success. Nevertheless, an 
active and bold party, led by the Earl of Shaftsbury, assailed the 



Rev. George Junkin^ D.D. 141 

venerable duke in Parliament, intending, if possible, to bring his 
life in peril. The Earl of Ossor}^, son of the duke, was a member 
of the Commons' House, and threw his young life into his father's 
defence, and with such vigor and skill as to confuse and utterly 
discomfit the party, and triumphantly vindicate his father's admin- 
istration. Not long after this the earl died, and left the noble and 
venerable duke in the deepest sorrow and anguish. Certain 
friends approached the bereaved parent with words of consola- 
tion. Whereupon, rising under his load of sorrows, and his 
heart swelling with a noble pride easily to be excused, the venera- 
ble father exclaimed, "I would not give my dead son for any 
living son in Christendom!" So a whole nation to-day exclaims, 
" We would not give our dead President for any living sovereign 
in Christendom or the world!" Why then, ah! why did God 
permit the assassin's hand to touch a life so precious? This I 
have already, in part at least, answered. Why did God permit 
wicked men to stone Stephen ? to crucify Peter ? to behead 
Paul? to burn John Huss and John Rogers and Patrick Ham- 
ilton? 

These, and millions more, heroic martyrs to the cause of 
truth and freedom, hath God removed just when their work was 
finished. Abraham Lincoln, like young Hamilton, and Rogers 
and Huss and Peter and Paul, the aged, had finished his work. 
He had, in the simplicity of his heart, and the honesty of his con- 
science, unconsciously written his rustic name higher than the 
loftiest heretofore known to history and to fame. He had filled 
up his share — and what a share! — in his country's glory. He 
had knocked the manacles oft' four millions of degraded bonds- 
men. He had called into the field the most powerful armies on 
which the sun ever shone; he had placed at their heads generals, 
called from obscurity, who may well look down with scorn on 
the Petit Corporal, the glory and boast heretofore of all the sons 



142 National Joy and Sorrow commingled. 

of Mars. He had created a navy of prowess superior to any that 
ever floated in w^ater, fresh and salt. He had crushed a rebelHon 
organized against the freedom of the world; and with such talent 
and power as was never before known in human history. He 
had added this last and indispensable demonstration of the grand 
truth, that man is capable of self-government. Glory enough, 
this, for one mortal! And God called him away to higher and 
holier service, we most fondly and reasonably hope. 

We may, indeed we ought, and we do, regret the place from 
which he was called. We regret that so great a man and so 
good should have given the force of his example to encourage 
dens of pollution. But even here, it is obvious his failings on 
the side of virtue, his kindly temperament, and unwillingness 
to occasion disappointment to an audience, rather than deliber- 
ate choice, occasioned his presence. We may even go further 
consistently with our high admiration, and accommodate David's 
lament over Abner: "Died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands 
were not bound, nor thy feet put in fetters : as a man falleth before 
wicked men, so fellest thou. And the king lifted up his voice, 
and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept." 
(2 Sam. iii. 32.) Whatever reasons may lie aback of this 
mournful mystery, it stands out a fearful faft in the movements 
of that divine Providence who doeth all things well, and that 
assured us that he will make all things work together for good to 
those who put their trust in him. 

Perhaps Mr. Lincoln would have been excessive in his lenity. 
His large-hearted benevolence had already led to many afts of 
clemency in the exercise of the pardoning power, which were, in 
the opinion of many of his best and most influential friends, of 
doubtful expediency. The opinion very extensively prevails, that, 
impelled by his noble sympathies for poor suffering humanity, he 
had enfeebled the nerve of discipline even in the army, by 



Rev. George Junkin, D.D. H3 



extending pardon or reprieve to deserters and bounty-jumpers 
Perhaps this amiable weakness in a strong mind might have led 
to more serious evils when criminals of the h.ghest charaaei 
should stand condemned at the bar of justice It requ.red more 
nerve, and of a higher order, to sign the death-warrant of Dr. 
Dodd than to storm Fort Fisher. Pardon to a man P^tly con- 
demned is a judgment against Justice herself, and a bnbe to 
future criminality. The right and duty to pardon a murderer has 
never been placed in the hands of the civil magistrate by d.vme 
statute. "Ye shall take no satisfaaion for the life of a murderer, 
which is guilty of death; but he shall be surely put to death 
(Num. x.4v. 3I-) Providentially, indeed, and m faft, this 
power is in the magistrate's hands, but not by express divine leg- 
islation. But the theory has grown out of the .mperfea.on of al 
human tribunals. It being possible that an innocent man migh 
be condemned, prudence has suggested the P;°P"^'y°[ ^j^f 
resort, to prevent the execution of an unjust sentence. Wherev er, 
therefore, a reasonable doubt arises as to the justice of the sen- 
tence that decrees a man to death, the pardoning power should 
nterfee; otherwise, never. I say, a reasonable doubt not a 
doubt created by our sympathetic emotions. "Justice and judg- 
ment are the habitation of Jehovah's throne: mercy and truth 
go before his face." (Ps. Ixxxix. 14.) Governments are estab- 
fished for the administration of justice, not for the dispensing of 
mercy; and for this God has put the sword into the magistrate s 
rand,'and he may not bear it in vain. Now, it is our duty a ways 
to scan the movements of Providence, that we may, 'f P°^f !^' 
disLver what he would have us to do. Watchman! wjat of he 
nicxht? But we shall press the inquiry no further. This is veiy 
probably the main reason of the mournful removal of our admir d 
and beloved Chief Magistrate, -that the executive power may fall 
■ "to the hands of a mail made of sterner stuff, and whose experi- 



144 A'a/iaMii/ joy and Sorrow commiMgUd. 

ciicos bettor tit him tor hearkening to the high and t'oartul behests 
ot" immutable and incorruptible Justice. 

We have telt the high jovs ot' gratitude to God tor the success 
he has bestowed on our arms. 

We have plunged from these heights into an almost abyss ot' 
sorrow. Our head dissolves in tears, and our e\es have become 
fountains of anguish. 

Our indignation at the honible rebellion, and its more horri- 
ble resort to the pistol, the dagger, the torch, and the poison of 
the assassin, tiames up into an unquenchable tire. And the 
very cause of our burning indignation suggests and prompts and 
urges on to the sure and etScient remedy, the simple administi'a- 
tion of justice. 

All tliese powerful emotions subside, at least, into a subdued 
humility. It is the Lord: let him do as seemeth to him good. 
But acquiescence in the divine Will by no means implies appro- 
bation of the agency by which it is accomplished. Joseph's 
brethren meant their cruelty for evil to him; but God meant all 
tor gv>od, that he might save Egypt itself, and Israel too, from 
most fe^u-tul calamity. So we humbly submit, in tlie contident 
expe«5tation that the nation's t'elicity and glory will spring up, a 
luminous and grand Shechinah. over the grave of Abraham Lin- 
coln. And, witli this buoy;mt hope in our he;u-ts, let us re- 
m;irk, — 

I St. We are not tighting for our own he;irthstones, for our owni 
wives ;md our children. If this were all, however praiseworthy 
some may feel it to be, it is narrow, seltish, mean, and bespeaks 
a soul devoid of the higher ;md nobler sentiments of a broad 
phihmthropy. 

2d. Nor are we tighting for the broad acres of old Penns3"lva- 
nia, baptized with tlie blood of a heroic ancestry, shed in support 



Rev. George Junkin, D.D. 145 

of the immortal Declaration issued from yonder Hall, in obedi- 
ence to a nation's will, on the 4th of July, 1776. Freedom here, 
indeed, and republican government, we claim and herald for all 
the people of this broad land. But even this were a conception 
too diminutive for the mustering of such forces, the authorizing 
of such vast treasuries. Oh, no! The Lord deliver us from 
these thoughts, suited only to the man of the little soul! for — 

3d. We are fighting for freedom and republican government 
over all this nation, over all this northern continent and the 
world. Here is progressing the gigantic experiment upon human 
nature, for the solution of the stupendous problem of man's capa- 
bility of self-government. If our experiment fails; if this nation 
cannot govern itself; if it is to be divided, dissolved, and plunged 
into the gulf, the Charybdis of interminable anarchy, or shivered to 
atoms against the Scylla of military despotism, — then is the hope 
of freedom and republicanism for the world for ever ingulfed. 
The affirmative of this problem, God is writing out, may we not 
say, has written out, in the blood of three or four hundred thou- 
sand men. Can any man believe that these vast armies, and these 
hundred battles, in comparison with which Agincourt and Blen- 
heim and Austerlitz and Wagram and Waterloo and Sebasto- 
pol and Solferino are but the skirmishings of pickets on the 
outposts, — can it be believed that all this is merely to determine 
whether or not a few thousand slave-owners shall drive their 
human stock, and locate them, upon new lands on our Western 
borders? Is it for such a purpose as this, God has marshalled 
these terrible hosts of earnest and courageous men, to fling them 
upon each other in such awful and undistinguishable courage.'' 
Surely not. Surely he is completing the grand demonstration in 
the eyes of all the nations, that they may read and learn from the 
blood and fire of a hundred battle-fields, that freemen can put 
down rebellion and govern themselves. 

19 



146 National Joy and Sorrow commingled. 

Yes, my friends, amid this awful scene the true Christian phi- 
losopher recognizes the Lord of Hosts as levying and drilling and 
training the armies; as building the navies, as educating the gen- 
erals and the admirals, the soldiers and the seamen, for the last 
and greatest battles of freedom. Despotism, from her iron throne, 
the w^orld over, looks on in amazement, and trembles in the 
paralysis of approaching death, at the might that slumbers in a 
peasant's arm. Probably, — we say it with an eye upon the pro- 
phecies of Holy Scripture, — probably within five years from this 
time will be fought, on the field of Megiddo, the most fearful, 
terrific, and decisive of all the bloody battles for freedom and 
for God. And I cannot believe that the Lord of Hosts will order 
the general charge on that great and terrible day, until his own 
American contingent shall have formed its line on the left bank 
of that ancient river, — the river of Kishon. I cannot exclude 
from my mind the pleasing, dreadful thought, that the Stars and 
the Stripes will float , in grandeur and in glory amid the dust 
and smoke of that terrific contest. The fond fancy — it may be 
no more — still clings to my soul, that American blood will share 
largely in the glorious work of consecrating to religion, to free- 
dom, and to God, the great plain of Jezreel. 

But then, obviously, for this we must bring God upon the 
battle-field. We must honor him, or he will not honor us. Thus 
did Deborah and Barak on this same field, and he gave them the 
victory, whilst they ascribe their triumph to him. 

Not inconsistently with what I have said of our national sins 
and army corruptions, I now remark, that there never was a time 
when more prayer was offered up, more religious effort put forth, 
more of a liberal, giving, charitable spirit displayed in the 
churches of our land, than during this war. Whilst, it is true, we 
have some of the very worst men of the land in our army and 
navy, it is equally true, we have some of the best also. Our 



Rev. George Junkin^ D.D. 147 

praying generals and admirals, soldiers and seamen, have wrestled 
mightily with God, and have prevailed. Books, tra6ts, religious 
newspapers have been read more than ever was done in any 
army under the sun. And these have been blessed, as means for 
the conversion of thousands. Assuredly hundreds of these army 
conversions will enter the sfervice of the Captain of our salvation, 
in aggressive wars against the powers of darkness. Moreover, it 
is an encouraging fa6l, that the popular voice of fhanksgiving 
ascended to God from parts and places new and strange. Who 
ever before heard the Christian doxology, — 

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow," — 

thundering out from ten thousand voices in Wall Street, in Chest- 
nut Street, and other places ? 

Yes, this is the right spirit. Let us bring God into every 
thing, — the army, the navy, the sea, and the land; the White 
House, the halls of Congress, the Courts of Justice, and the elec- 
tion polls. God has placed the sovereignty in the people, and 
therefore the sovereign cannot ever be assassinated. 

Let every freeman walk with God. Let him learn submission 
to Jesus, by whom kings reign and princes decree justice. With 
the Son of God as its king, the nation must ever be safe, must 
ever triumph. Amen. 

Philadelphia Inquirer, Jiitie 2, 1865. 




MEMORIAL SERTilON: 



DELIVERED IX THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, COLUMBUS, OHIO, 
THURSDAY, JUNE I, 1S65 ; 

BY REV. W. R. MARSHALL, 

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 



Rom. ix. 17 : " Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my 
power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth ! " 

THE great Dr. John M. Mason began an oration on the death 
of George Washington, in language as follows, — "The 
offices of this day belong less to eloquence than to grief. An 
assembled nation, lamenting a father in their departed chief; ab- 
sorbing every inferior consideration in the sentiments of their 
common loss; mingling their recolle6lions and their anticipations, 
their wishes, their regrets, their sympathies and their tears, — is a 
spectacle not more tender than awful, and excites emotions too 
mighty for utterance. I should have no right to complain, Amer- 
icans, if, instead of indulging me with your attention, you should 
command me to retire, and leave you to weep in the silence of 
woe. I should deserve the reprimand were I to appear before you 
with the pretentions of eulogy. No! Eulogy has mistaken her 
province and her powers, when she assumes for her theme the 
glory of Washington. His deeds and his virtues are his high 
eulogium, — his deeds most familiar to your memories, his vir- 



Rev. W. R. Marshall. 149 

tues most dear to your affections. To me, therefore, nothing is 
permitted but to borrow from yourselves. And, though a pencil 
more daring than mine would languish in attempting to retrace 
the living lines which the finger of Truth has drawn upon your 
hearts, you will bear with me while, on a subject which dignifies 
every thing related to it, ^ I tell you that which yourselves do 
know.' " 

Could I in more befitting spirit, or with more appropriate lan- 
guage, appear before you to-day, to speak of the man whom you 
bewail, with that same unison of unutterable feeling with which 
your fathers, sixty-five years ago, mourned for Washington, — 
the man who is enshrined to-day in the weeping heart of this 
great Republic, side by side with its first, its noblest, its matchless 
patriot ? 

The life of Abraham Lincoln was too closely related to the 
interests of us all, and bore too effectively upon the experience 
and prospe6ts of the generation, to be barren of theme for pulpit 
discourse, or of important lessons for the study of the Christian 
and the patriot. 

But I should utterly fail in the duty of this hour, imposed both 
by the peculiar nature of my office, and a consideration of the 
true interests of the public, if I were to represent that character 
only in its proximate reference to human society, and discon- 
nected from its higher and farther-reaching relations to that divine 
government which comprehends all the human, and whose prog- 
ress develops the history, and solves the destiny, of all men and 
nations. " The history of the world," remarks the historian of 
the Reformation, " should be set as the annals of the government 
of the Sovereign of the universe. God is ever present on that 
vast theatre, where successive generations of men and nations 
struggle. Shall we not recognize his hand in those grand mani- 
festations, those great men, those mighty nations, which arise and 



i£;o - Memorial Sermon. 



start, as it were, from the dust of the earth, and communicate a 
new form and destiny to the human race ? Shall we not acknowl- 
edge him in those great heroes who spring from society at ap- 
pointed epochs, — who display a strength and an activity beyond 
the ordinary limits of humanity, and around whom, as around a 
superior and mysterious power, nations and individuals gladly 
gather?" And our own Bancroft says, "Providence is the light 
of history, and the soul of the world." 

Then, through all that is unique, and all that is great, in his 
life; through all that is remarkable in his progress, and all that 
is important in the a6tion of Mr. Lincoln; and through all the 
scenes, stormy, confused, and chaotic, in which he mingled, — we 
look up to that omnipotent God, who sits enthroned above, and 
ruleth over all, and regard the man as a servant of the divine, the 
earthly ruler as a delegated agent of the supreme and universal 
pfovernment which has its throne in heaven. And as such I will 
speak of Mr. Lincoln's relation to the present and the future. 

As among the thousand stately spires that surmount a great 
and proud city, one towers highest in air; or, among alpine moun- 
tains, one lifts its bold summit nearest the skies, and reflects upon 
all below the earlier and purer rays of light: so among the thou- 
sands, who, by positions of influence and deeds of importance, 
have lately risen above the common level, and stand in the light 
of fame as towers of human greatness, Abraham Lincoln mounts 
to the loftiest altitude, and surrounds himself with the brightest 
and most imperishable halo of earthly glory. 

Amid the noise and confusion of these unparalleled times; in 
the hurried succession of transpiring events, that, like a train of 
supernal prodigies, has passed before us; amid scenes, in their 
thrilling, terrible aspects similar to, if not identical with, apoca- 
lyptic visions, our patriot President was the most prominent 
figure and most eflScient agent. If, over all this drama of human 



Rev, W. R. Marshall. 151 

affairs, there is a universal Providence and a divine Sovereign, 
whose w^isdom, powder, and will control the confusion, and order 
the progress, — selecting the agents, and limiting the competition 
of ambition and power; balancing the collisions and combina- 
tions of interests and principles, so as to work out results of per- 
manent good and substantial advancement to the race of man, — 
as at creation he developed a world of beauty, order, and life, out 
of the formless void of dark chaos, — then Abraham Lincoln was, 
by that Supreme Ruler, appointed to his position and his work, 
created for and adapted to the exigencies of the times. What 
the man was as an apparent result of visible influences, God made 
him, by that infallible decree that not only ordains the end, but 
sele6ls and energizes all the second causes of its accomplishment. 

And as much as the times were eventful, and their occur- 
rences important, so in proportion is the importance of Abraham 
Lincoln's relation to the present experience and future prospe6ts 
of this nation and the world. 

The crisis through which our country has just passed, though 
not the first, was incomparably the most critical and threatening 
in our experience, and has, perhaps, no precedent or parallel in 
the history of any surviving government. 

The causes which produced it were at least connate, if they 
had not an existence anterior to the origin of our nationality. 
Like a slow poison they gradually spread through the body poli- 
tic, and long preyed upon its organs of health with only an occa- 
sional symptom of the coming terrible paroxysms. 

In the natural world, the elements of storm often colle6l 
quietly, slowly, and invisibly. The light, unseen vapors of water 
are lifted silently from the face of the ocean, and w^afted far away 
into the upper atmosphere by breezes so gentle that they stir not 
an aspen near the earth's surface ; and for days and weeks, while 
the sun, unobscured by a single cloud, shines gloriously on a 



152 Memorial Sermon. 



serene continent and a calm sea, those watery vapors assemble in 
secret rendezvous, still gathering proportion and force, until a 
certain condition is attained; and then suddenly the storm-clouds 
are marshalled in the heavens, and irresistibly the flooding tor- 
rents, the sweeping winds, and the riving lightnings rush down 
to the assault of sea and land. Thus also, through many quiet 
years, the elements of strife, that lately issued in a storm of deso- 
lating war, were gathering far up in our national atmosphere. 
For many years together we rejoiced securely in the halcyon sun- 
light of unbroken prosperity and unhalting progress. 

Occasionally some difficulty would arise producing temporary 
excitement; and, while a few thought they heard afar off" the mut- 
tering thunders of an approaching storm, there was generally no 
apprehension of danger. Grandfathers still related the thrilling 
traditions of revolutionary times, and youthful hearts almost en- 
vied an experience which they supposed was passed for ever. 

But a few years ago, our national prospects began to change 
rapidly, and, in the judgment of all, to assume a threatening as- 
pe6l. Questions, upon which sentiment and pra6tice divided, 
began to be regarded as of vital importance, and to be discussed 
with moving ardor. Grave statesmen and patriot legislators 
trembled under the weight of their responsibilities, as on all sides 
they apprehended the fearful consequences. Compromises were 
resorted to, and served quite well for temporary relief. But as 
anodynes conceal the symptoms while the disease strikes deeper 
into the vitals, so in the lull of excitement, produced by concili- 
atory measures, se6tional differences extended themselves more 
widely, and settled down into more determined antagonism. 

At length, the fiery elements of strife refused to be longer re- 
pressed. The storm-cloud was completely charged with fury, 
and hung dark and imminent over a quaking nation. 

It was at such a time, and in such a critical condition of na- 



Rev. W. R. Marshall. 153 

tional affairs, that Mr. Lincoln was called to the chief magistracy, 
from a position of comparative privacy, in which he had rarely or 
never indulged an ambitious anticipation of Presidential honors 
and responsibilities. That position, always important, indeed, 
had heretofore been chiefly regarded as a source of party advan- 
tage; and never till now had it been actually looked upon as the 
source of national life or death. 

But then the eyes of all the thoughtful and the patriotic were 
eagerly turned towards that seat of civil and military power, as to 
the only possible source of national preservation. 

Their anxiety, too, was increased by its great embarrassments, 
— some manifest, many only inferential. The disaffected se6lion 
had swayed the chief official influence for many years, and had 
deliberately weakened the powers of the Government, until that 
seat of authority was left to the new incumbent literally unsup- 
ported. And, looking forward into the unwonted darkness of the 
future, even minds of ordinary sagacity could foresee the rise of 
enfeebling divisions among the loyal, and of questions that w^ere 
likely to involve and complicate our relations to other countries. 
Well might the lovers of their countr}', though they were even 
friends of Mr. Lincoln, and had joined in his elevation, tremble 
with anxiety as they saw him assume that all-important seat. 
But with immeasurably more intentness did He who occupies the ' 
throne of universal empire regard our presidential chair. The 
interests of His great kingdom, of nations, and of worlds, were in 
some degree involved in our national crisis. And he too under- 
stood, far better than men, the proportions of that crisis. We 
were greatly mistaken about the probable magnitude and duration 
of the coming storm. But Ommiscience surveyed and computed 
all corre6lly, — saw each wasting campaign, and reviewed in ad- 
vance each bloody battle-ground; estimated the full effeft of 
every defeat, disaster, and disappointment; beheld all the un- 

20 



154 Memorial Sermon . 



sightly scenes of every Fort-Pillow massacre, and of every prison 
famine. He heard the lament of every mother, the v^ail of every 
widow, and the cry of every orphan. And he knew perfectly 
every exasperation of feeling, every confli6l of views and theories, 
and every gale of popular excitement which would be aroused by 
the horrid phenomena of the rebellion, and in mighty fury vie 
together in adverse, complicating pressure upon the President. 
And intending, by humane instrumentality, to bring the nation 
through all its troubles, chastened indeed, but unsevered, he knew 
just the sort of man needed for the all-important presidency. 
And, from among all the great and the good, the wise and the pa- 
triotic, he chose Abraham Lincoln, and thus placed him in the 
indescribably responsible relation to the present and the future of 
Conservator and Reformer. 

And now, that the office is accomplished, and the history 
made, a grateful but mourning people gladly consider how faith- 
fully and successfully he performed his mission. 

If, from a review of the embarrassments that sought to tram- 
mel him, and the mighty exigencies which pressed upon him, it 
be inquired whether he really succeeded in both aspe6ls of his 
v^ork, let the rejoicings of a regenerated nation, and the acclama- 
tions of liberated millions, nay, rather let the wailings of a whole 
people, who to-da}^ mourn his loss, answer. Men of all shades 
of political opinion and party, of all classes and conditions in 
social life, throughout the loyal North, sincerely grieve for the 
fallen great. And even from the charred and crimson fields upon 
which Southern treason played its cruel drama, we hear the re- 
sponsive echo of our mourning. One whose position enabled 
him to speak intelligently, and who had himself gone heartily and 
persistently with the rebellion, writing from his home in Rich- 
mond to a friend in Washington, a few days after the President's 
death, says, " Our city is gloom. You can form no conception of 



Rev, W. R. Marshall. 



155 



the extent and depth of our sorrow. I verily beHeve that the as- 
sassination of Jefferson Davis, at any time w^ithin the last two 
years, would not have produced a tithe of the sadness which the 
unwelcome intelligence from Washington has created." 

Within the whole limits of our national territory there is, I 
apprehend, not a heart in which abides a single feeling of patriot- 
ism which has not been pierced by the assassin who murdered 
the President. 

Yea: from far over the sea, we receive greetings of tender 
sympathy, the tribute of other peoples to the memory of our de- 
parted Chieftain, and tokens of their regard for his chara6ler and 
his work. 

But, aside from all this, as a sufficient testimon}^ of his success, 
and, I trust, perpetual monument to his worth, our nationality 
survives, after all the demons of insurgent war have spent their 
unparalleled fury, and is purer and stronger to-da}^ than it was 
when he seized the helm of its government. And its full history, 
glorious as I trust it shall be, will be the continued life of his 
character; and its prosperity, great and perpetual as I hope, will 
be the produ6t of his undying influence. 

And it is wise and profitable to study the elements of a char- 
after so worthy, and by the combined operation of which results 
of such importance are effected. 

I St. The first among his powers we recognize his mental char- 
acteristics. If the varying opinions which have so often been 
expressed, have not already harmonized, I doubt not they will ere 
long settle down into the unanimous conclusion, that he possessed 
a mind of extraordinary capacity. His perceptive faculties were 
peculiarly penetrating and far reaching; his reasoning powers, 
unusually strong and accurate: and these, associated with a mem- 
ory of rare excellence, constituted a very superior mind, and, made 
him within the sphere of his study an almost matchless logician. 



I C56 Memorial Sermon. 



Events, I think, have already proved, that no other man has 
more thoroughly comprehended the great questions which in 
these days confront the statesman, and none ever more triumph- 
antly mastered the great problems of social life and civil power 
which their times developed. There was a time when his genius 
was greatly doubted, and very many supposed that Mr. Lincoln 
was little more than the ignorant mouthpiece of the wise men 
around him. But I think it is now generally believed, by those 
possessing the best means of information, that, throughout his ad- 
ministration, his was the controlling mind in the Cabinet; and all 
the most important do6lrines maintained, and measures instituted, 
were peculiarly his o^vn. 

The well-known circumstances of his earlier life may have 
contributed some advantages to the foundation of his mental and 
moral character; but doubtless the disadvantages they imposed 
greatly preponderated. However much some are attributing his 
later greatness to his earlier experience, I do not suppose that 
any really regard such an education as his the best training for 
presidential duties, or would intentionally turn the ambition of 
youthful aspirants into such a channel. The common experience 
of the past will be the common experience of the future, — 
namely, "that the disciple is as his master." Generally, influ- 
ences will raise chara6ter to their own level. A rare mind will, 
by force of native genius, overleap its barriers, and lift itself far 
above the elevation to which its surrounding influences could 
carry it \ but even it under favoring circumstances would have 
mounted to a vastly nobler eminence. From what we know he 
was, we might reasonably indulge, what would otherwise seem 
to be very extravagant speculations, about what Mr. Lincoln 
would have been, had he enjoyed the best advantages for educa- 
tion. But it is better that we simply claim for him genius; while 
we admire the persevering industry and sterling morality which 



Rev. W. R. Marshall. 157 

raised him far above the apparent ordination of circumstances, 
and conquered every obstacle that lay between his humble ori- 
gin and his glorious destiny. 

It is, I believe, universally conceded, that, vv^hile he did come 
short somewhat in the rhetorical elaboration, he was always re- 
markably clear in the enunciation of his premises, and the state- 
ment of his conclusions. And that may be in part due to his 
education. He knew little, and cared less, for those refinements 
of language, which the mere disputant often uses as the specious 
disguise of fallacy. Great facility in the use of language is often 
an element of weakness rather than power. Quality is often sac- 
rificed to quantity. But that feature of mental character was 
chiefly due to his power of discussive thinking. Language is but 
the form or articulation of thought; and a man's mental strength 
should be measured by his ability to express meaning, rather 
than by his facility in pronouncing sonorous words: for, although 
there must be exceptional cases, the general rule is, that, when a 
man understands a subject thoroughly, he will be able to express 
it clearly. Obscurity of language is a sure indication of insufl[i- 
ciency of thought, or want of candor. Hence, from the chara6ter- 
istics of his style, we argue his intellectual greatness. 

But, to present his mental capacity in its true light, we must 
for a little anticipate the view of his moral chara6ter. Civil and 
social questions always have their distin6t ethical features, which 
must also be corre6lly regarded, in order to their adequate com- 
prehensions. A man may have great intelle6lual powers, and 
yet, in the sphere of politics and sociology, he will fall short of 
the achievements of true greatness, unless he have corre6t and 
strong moral sentiments. And for this reason many a flashing 
genius has faded into obscurity, or gone out in the darkness of 
everlasting disgrace. As the eye that is color-blind may be 
keenly perceptive of some rays of the solar spe6lrum, or some 



158 Memorial Sermon . 



\ 



of nature's beauties; and totally insensible to others : so some un- 
fortunate minds are keenly perceptive of some aspe6ts of truth, 
and totally blind to others. It was, however, manifestly not so 
with Mr. Lincoln. The principles of true. Christian morality 
pervaded his mind, and impressed their features upon all his 
thoughts. He looked carefully at all sides, until he understood 
the whole subjeft in its various bearings. And hence, as the 
sequel has • proved, he always excelled the champions of more 
partisan policy, or of one-idead fanaticism, who confine their con- 
sideration to favorite points in great questions. 

2d. Another element of his power, and condition of his suc- 
cesses, was his very decided religious convictions. I am forbidden, 
alike by my own inclination, and by the order of the Master 
whom I serve, to consider the question whether or not his reli- 
gious convictions amounted to genuine Christian faith; whether or 
not he was a regenerated and san6lified child of God. I may 
only say, that the eminently pious and judicious gentleman who, 
durinof his administration, sustained to him the relation of reli- 
gious pastor, and enjoyed his intimacy, is fully persuaded that he 
was a man of prayer, and has strong and comforting hopes that 
he was a true disciple of Jesus Christ; while he deeply regrets 
that he never proved his allegiance to the Saviour by a public 
avowal of his religion. But it is certain, that his convictions of 
the whole truth of Bible doCtrines were profound and lively. A 
knowledge of his relations, and a sense of his obligations and ac- 
countabilities, to the living God, were never absent from him; 
and to this faCt was due the constant manifestation of some of his 
brightest virtues, — honesty, for instance, the proverbial character- 
istic of his life. I suppose a man may be honest and truthful 
without any Christian conviCtions; but the faCts of experience are 
rather against the supposition. It is said, that these qualities, as 
permanent traits of charaCler, are never exhibited among those 



Rev. W. R. Marshall. 159 

families of mankind which have not enjoyed the revelation of 
Bible truth. And while Mr. Lincoln's natural impulses were 
honest, I doubt not it was his religious sentiment that developed 
in him a principle which no motive of terror or attraction availed 
to swerve from stri6t moral rectitude. 

Another of his chara6leristic virtues was an unfaltering cour- 
age to do and to endure. At times, when terrible defeat dis- 
heartened our armies and emboldened our foes; w^hen envious 
monarchs threatened alliance with the mighty insurre6lion, or 
gazed on in breathless expectation of seeing, under the rising 
battle-smoke, the ruins of our proud Republic, and friends quaked 
with despondent apprehension, — the President remained unshaken 
in his confidence of success, and in his determination to enforce 
the nation's authority, and maintain her integrity. When the 
clouds were blackest, the storm fiercest, and the sea roughest, as 
the old ship lurched and groaned until most faces around him 
were blanched with fear, the brave-hearted helmsman stood to his 
post, firm, calm, and strong to guide, order, and do. Doubtless, 
courage was native to him. But it was now fortified and rendered 
immovable by his profound religious convi6lions. He fully be- 
lieved, that the living Almighty God has a kingdom that ruleth 
over all, and that he is doing his pleasure in the armies of heaven, 
and among the inhabitants of the earth; present in all places; 
governing all his creatures, and ordering all events, so as to bring 
out the issues of his own divine purposes. Fully, enthusiastically 
embracing that do6lrine of Almighty Providence; confiding in the 
justice of the nation's cause, and persuaded of her grand, heaven- 
decreed destiny, — he could not by any temporary reverses of for- 
tune, or by any combination of difficulties, be driven to despair 
of success. 

The courage which bases itself in patriotism will accomplish 
wonders of daring and enduring; but that which is rooted in 
religious convi6lion is unconquerable and immortal. 



i6o Memorial Sermon. 



Nor do I claim such a basis for the courageous manifestations 
of Mr. Lincohi's chara6ter without ample warrant from his own 
public declarations. 

In that affecting valedi6lory to the people of Springfield, he 
says, " I go to assume a task more difficult than that which de- 
volved upon Washington. Unless the great God who assisted 
him shall be with and aid me, I must fail. But if the same 
Omniscient mind, and the same Almight}^ arm, that directed and 
prote6ted him, shall guide and support me, I shall not fail, I shall 
succeed. Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not 
forsake us now. To him I commend you all. Permit me to ask, 
that, with equal sincerit}^ and faith, you all will invoke his 
wisdom and guidance for me." In his first Inaugural, while 
marshalled soldiery and shotted cannon restrained present hun- 
dreds who thirsted for his blood, he said, " Intelligence, patriotism, 
Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet for- 
saken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best 
way, all our present difficulties." On the dark Fourth of July, 
1 86 1, he closed his first Message to Congress, with this language: 
" Having thus chosen our cause without guile, and with pure 
purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without 
fear^ and with manly heartsP His second Inaugural is little else 
than a reverent review of God's providence; a grateful recogni- 
tion of his infinite wisdom, power, and goodness; and an earnest 
exhortation to the people to trust in him, and abide his will. As 
the British " Standard " said, it is " the most remarkable thing 
of the sort ever pronounced by any President of the United States 
from the first day until now. Its Alpha and its Omega is Almighty 
God, the God of justice, and the Father of mercies, who is work- 
ing out the purposes of his love. It is invested with a dignity and 
pathos which lift it high above every thing of the kind, whether 
in the Old World or the New." I question much if Mr. Lincoln's 



Rev. W. R. Marshall. i6i 



whole character, the elements of his power, and sources of his 
eminent success, can ever be better described than it is done by 
his own pen in the closing sentence of that address: "With 
malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the 
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish 
the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for 
him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his 
orphans; to do all which ma}^ achieve and cherish a just and 
lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." He did not, 
as some of our officers have seemed to do, speak the language of 
religion only in proclamations of national fasts and thanksgiving, 
when such acknowledgments of God could not be avoided; but 
frankly and unhesitatingly embraced every suitable occasion to 
give distin6l utterance to his convictions, and by the confidence 
and courage which these convictions inspired, and by the a6lion 
they prompted, conserved our imperilled nationality, and the 
mighty interests of the times committed to him. Furthermore, 
in this phase of his character, he perhaps presents to the world 
its most distinct and complete realization of a truly Christian 
government, in its two cardinal principles of human liberty and 
divine sovereignty; and future generations on this and other 
continents, may we not hope, will experience the blessings of his 
illustration of new ideas in civil affairs; and future historians 
date his administration as the dawning era of a Christian Theo- 
cracy. And hence, in his relations to present and future history, 
I call him him a Reformer as well as Conservator. 

And, in support of my view, it gives me pleasure to quote 
from the funeral oration pronounced by his pastor. After enumer- 
ating his virtuous principles, and their noble exhibition, Dr. Gurley 
says, " All these things commanded and fixed our admiration, and 
the admiration of the world, and stamped upon his chara6ter 
and life the unmistakable impress of greatness. But more sub- 

21 



1 6 2 Memorial Sermon . 



lime than any or all of these, more holy and influential, more 
beautiful, strong, and sustaining, was his abiding confidence in 
God, and in the final triumph of truth and righteousness through 
him and for his sake. This, it seems to me, after being near him 
steadily, and with him often, for more than four years, is the 
principle, more than by any other, he being dead yet speaketh. 
Yes, by his steady, enduring confidence in God, and in the com- 
plete ultimate success of the cause of God, which is the cause 
of humanity, more than in any other way, does he now speak to 
us, and to the nation he loved and served so well. By thi^ he 
speaks to his successor in office, and charges him to have faith in 
God. By this he speaks to all who occupy positions of influence 
and authority in these sad and troublous times, and he charges 
them all to have faith in God. By this he speaks to this great 
people, as they sit in sackcloth to-day, and weep for him with a 
bitter wailing, and refuse to be comforted; and he charges them 
to have faith in God; and by this he zcz7/ speak through the ages, 
and to all rulers and peoples in every land, and his message to 
them will be, ^ Cling to liberty and right; battle for them; bleed 
for them; die for them, if need be; and have confidence in 
God.'" 

3d. Another element of Mr. Lincoln's greatness, which, in 
its manifestation in his public life, arrays him with the chara6ter 
now attributed to him, was his strong emotional nature. 

I at least assert no more than the truth, when I say his heart- 
power was as great as his brain-power. The purer and better 
emotions of our nature, which tend to aftual and universal 
brotherhood among men; which sink personal ambitions into 
fraternal sympathies, subordinate self-interests to common enjoy- 
ments, restore to the race some features of the divine image, and 
recover for it some of the happiness and dignity of its pristine 
state, — manifest their presence and unusual strength, while they 



Rev. W. R. Marshall. 163 



shed an enchanting lustre of beauty and lovehness over the v^ho e 
private and public life of the great man. He was proverbially 
crood-natured and affeaionate, benevolent and forgiving. True 
To the worthy, grateful to the friendly, charitable to the needy, 
forbearing to the erring, impartial as a father, patient as a mother 
tender as a child. Deep as it may be, the public impression ot 
his emotional charaaeristics is not equal to the faa. Incidents 
are related by those who saw the inner and more private side 
of his life, showing that he could not bear the consciousness ot 
havino- unnecessarily hurt the feelings of a human being or 
of having failed to alleviate when he might. It cannot be dis- 
puted that, by the exercise of these noble affeaions, he multiplied 
friends and diminished foes, and thus greatly strengthened his 
own arm of official power, and promoted the cause of his country. 
Nor can it be that his benevolent dispositions were excessive; 
unless we have entirely mistaken his charaaer in other respeas. 
Kindness never can be too great unless it displace wisdom and 
justice. If charity errs at all, it must be either through ignorance 
or disregard of the right. And, while I do not suppose our late 
President was in all instances correa in his judgment, I do main- 
tain that he was generally so, and perhaps always sincere in his 
intentions to do right. I have no sympathy with the morbid 
sentimentalism that in any case opposes the infliaion oi the 
righteous penalty of crime. I believe there is a principle of 
retributive justice, as immutable as an attribute of divinity, which 
demand a satisfaaion for guilt; and a principle of reaorial justice 
which guards the dignity and safety of Government. Nor do 1 
indicate any opinion concerning the policy that should now be 
adopted as suited to the present or future condition of things; 
but I do affirm my belief that the principles which controlled Mr. 
Lincoln's treatment of his country's foes were wise and Christian 
in the main. Providence assigned to him the work of suppres- 



164 Memorial Sermon. 



sing the rebellion, and saving the nation; and reserved for another 
the responsibility of prosecuting and punishing the captured 
offenders by due process of law. 

The history of revolutions w^ill never change until human 
nature itself changes. And the analogy of all recorded experi- 
ence certainl}^ establishes the fa6l, that the re-a6lion of sentiment 
among the common people after failure, particularly of a cause- 
less rebellion, is general, rapid, and extreme; and I doubt not that 
there w^ill be, ere long, in the hearts of many who have served in 
the insurgent ranks, a veneration for the old flag, and a loyalty 
to the old Government, as intense as the emotions which impelled 
the nation's defenders. And hence I have never believed, that 
our union of States, union of hearts, and union of hands was, or 
would now be, permanently severed. And I maintain, that the 
effe6l of Mr. Lincoln's benevolent policy will be to promote 
greatly the rapidity and completeness of that re-a6lion. He has 
prepared the people of the South, so soon as their leaders are 
disposed of, and the base falsehoods which deluded them are dis- 
sipated, to hurry back into happy re-union and hearty allegiance, 
as a prodigal son, allured by a father's kindness, hastens back to 
the shelter of his home, and to the blessings of his beneficent 
authority; while it is at least probable that a different policy 
would have aggravated the struggle, given excuse for the inter- 
ference of envious power abroad, and have crushed thousands 
more of the innocent, if not also the nation's life, under the cruel 
tread of bloody vengeance. 

And not only did he thus conserve the nation's life, but thus 
also he reformed the character of her civilization, illustrating 
do6lrines heretofore comparatively inoperative in civil ethics, and 
a6tualizing before the world the great social laws of the Christian 
religion. While with traitorous intrigue and blackest malice, the 
rebels sought our nation's life; and while with a savage cruelty, 



Rev. W. R. Marshall 165 



more fiendish than human, they massacred and starved our 
soldiers when helpless captives "in their hands, — the President's 
kindness and the people's forbearance, nay, their charitable minis- 
tration of temporal comforts and spiritual privileges to all the 
M^ounded and the captive, the sick and the dying enemies who 
could be reached by the hundreds of Christian and Sanitary 
delegates who were always in the field, furnish the brightest, aye, 
the first such copy of the Saviour's chara6ler, the first instance of 
a great nation obeying the divine precept: "Love your enemies 
bless them that ciirse you, do good to them that hate you, and 
pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." 
And, if we still prove ourselves just as well as merciful, no human 
foresight can predi6l the blessing which our example may confer 
upon mankind by subdying the ferocity of war, — nor predi6l the 
influence in behalf of Christianity which it may enable the Church 
of this land to exert over the heathen mind. 

The missionary of Christ will now leave our shores with an 
indorsement such as the citizen of no other country can bear* 
and as, with the benighted and wretched, he maintains the truth 
and excellence of the gospel, he can refer to the history of his 
own country as an exhibition of gospel fruits in a form that will 
command the admiration of every human heart. Yea, he may 
quote that history as a living and unanswerable argument in favor 
of the Christian religion and republican liberty. Nor will he find 
that testimony any longer rebutted by the black record of Amer- 
ican slavery, or the gospel impeded in its progress by any thing 
in our political and social institutions so opposed to its spirit as 
human bondage; since under God, and at the proper jun6lure 
of providential events, our lamented President, in the justice, 
benevolence, and courage of his heart, by the immediate power 
and mediate consequence of his emancipation order, broke "every 
yoke, and let the oppressed go free." And now as a purified and 



1 66 Memorial Sermon. 



Christianized nationality invites the contemplation, challenges 
the admiration, and entreats the imitation, of all people, hastening 
on the disinthralment of the race, Abraham Lincoln — at once 
the model and the architect of the new chara6ler — will stand 
out in all future history as a world reformer ; and succeeding 
generations will still continue the strain of honor to his memory, 
and thanksgiving to Heaven for the gift of such a man, to such a 
nation, at such a time. 

Thrice happy America! blessed with a Washington and 
a Lincoln! unparalleled patriots! unexampled leaders! What 
incredulous mind will now doubt her grand destiny ? What trai- 
torous arm ever again attempt to arrest her progress ? Let all 
her sons read, in the history of the glorious past, the prophecy 
of her more glorious future, and still revive their patriotism and 
their religion by memories of the fallen great! Let their spirit 
inspire all her sons, and their mantle rest on all her rulers ! And 
let her ever cherish, defend, and disseminate the noble, heaven- 
born principles for which Washington lived, for which Lincoln 
died ; and, with unwavering earnestness, and unswerving devotion 
to the cause of God and man, bear onward to all the w^orld that 
charming banner upon which the honored dead emblazoned the 
inscription, — a pure Christianity and universal Liberty. 

Ohio State Journal, Columbus-, June lo, 1865. 




DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN 

A SERMON ; 

BY REV. J. F. POTTS, B.A., 

LONDON, ENGLAND. 



Judges, xvi. 30: " So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he 

slew in his life." 

THAT which is good never dies. In proportion as it is good, 
it partakes of the nature of God; and hence in the same 
proportion is eternal. Sometimes it seems to die, but in truth it 
is only removed to some higher position of life and power. It is 
on this account that in the Word, to die, when spoken of good- 
ness, denotes to rise again; and when man reads of death, the 
angels think of resurreaion. What is true of principles is also 
tru^'e of persons, for persons are principles embodied. A good 
man, therefore, never dies. He seems to die, — we miss him 
from his accustomed and familiar position amongst us; we say 
he is dead. It is a mistake: he lives more really than ever; for 
his thoughts are far more clear, his judgment is far more cor- 
rea his perceptions are far more vivid, and his affeaions far 
more intense and absorbing, than before. And thought and 
affeaion are the two constituents of our conscious life. On the 
other hand, that which is evil never lives. It seems to live, it 
" has the name to Hve; " but, just in proportion as it is evil, it is 



1 68 Death of President Lincoln. 

dead," because in the same proportion it is separate from the only 
source of life. Hence, in the Word, by the dead, are meant the 
evil, whether persons or principles; and to slay the dead is to 
drive aw^ay the evil, to disperse the inventions of falsehood, and 
to subjugate the dark, impure passions of selfishness in all its 
various forms. These are " the dead," which it is our duty to 
slay, — errors, impure ideas, selfish machinations, desires which 
render us regardless of the welfare and happiness of others, bad 
habits, — all principles of death and self-destruftion; and, when 
personified, evil spirits, dead souls, who will slay us, unless we 
overcome them, and drive them far away. These are the dead 
which the good man slays in his life; but, when he rises above 
this earthly battle-ground, he at once, by the aft which we call 
death, disperses them for ever, and thus enters into a state of 
perpetual peace, where he is free from the suggestions of false- 
hood, and untempted by the influences of evil. True, therefore, 
it is, of every good man who has departed from amongst us 
below, as of the mighty Danite, that " the dead which he slew at 
his death were more than they which he slew in his life." 

The reason why these divine words apply to et^ery good man 
is, that they apply to the Lord, who is the divine pattern and 
forerunner of us all; for Samson represents the Lord in his 
chara6ter of a Divine Natural Man. It was by means of the 
natural degree into which the Lord descended when born into 
the world, that he engaged in personal conflict with the powers 
of darkness. It was in that degree that he fought his life-long 
battle with the spiritual Philistines who had enslaved his people, 
gradually driving them back, and releasing the human race from 
their tyranny, until the work was so far accomplished, and the 
vi6lory so nearly achieved, that it wanted but one signal effort to 
finish the one, and secure the other. That effort was made when 
the Lord underwent his last direful temptation on the cross. 



Rev. J. F. Potts, B.A. 169 

When that was over, and his innocent earthly life had been 
yielded up, hell was not merely conquered, it was subjugated; 
it was not merely shut up, it was sealed: for that final a6t fully 
completed the Lord's glorification, and thus caused him to arise 
a Divine Man for ever, and to stand as the eternal Samson in his 
Divine Natural degree, — the eternal vanquisher of the hells, to 
" keep them in subjection for ever." It is therefore true, yea, 
infinitely true, of him, that the " dead which he slew at his death 
were more than they which he slew in his life." 

The conclusion to be drawn from these considerations is, that 
what we call death is, to goodness, its vi6tory and completion; 
that it is more to its advantage than all its previous progressions, 
because it is their final finishing and ultimation, the fixing process 
of them all, and thus stands superior in the proportion that eter- 
nity is superior to time. Bearing this conclusion in mind, it will 
enable us to see why the great and good man who lately stood at 
the head of the great American Republic has been suddenly 
stricken down in his distinguished place, and removed from the 
position he had filled so well and with such signal success, at 
the very time when it seemed to us he was about to exercise its 
fun6tions with more success and usefulness than ever. And, in 
doing this, it is not my obje6t to pass any panegyric upon Presi- 
dent Lincoln; for a man's deeds, and the work he leaves behind 
him done, are his true panegyric, and one which is based upon a 
secure foundation, because it will stand or fall, will fail or con- 
tinue, according to the chara6ter of that foundation. I shall, 
therefore, merely quote well-established fa6fs, and endeavor to 
draw from them sound and instructive inferences, calculated 
to throw light upon the apparently mysterious a6tion of the 
divine Providence in this and similar events, and to heal over 
the cruel wound which has been stabbed in all our hearts by this 
afflidling blow and this seemingly irreparable loss. 

22 



170 Death of President Lmcoln. 

President Lincoln was the abolisher of slavery. It is true 
that only the will of a nation can abolish a national evil; never- 
theless, if that will has not its exponent and instrument in its 
administrative officers, it is not carried out. But he was not only 
the willing instrument, — he was the leader: he was not only the 
servant of that will, — he was, as far as a single man could be, 
the creator of it. At the commencement of his political career, 
— when to do so was unpopular, if not dangerous, — he raised his 
voice against that truly infernal institution, as the serpent that 
would destroy the children of his country. And, when he came 
into a position where he could show by his afts the sincerity of 
his words, he never failed to exert his influence against its exten- 
sion, until at last, when he stood in a position which gave him 
supreme authority over slavery, he published the edift which 
declared its end, and finally secured its destruction by drawing 
all his countrymen after him, and thus made his individual decree 
a national principle. But just at the moment that the dark and 
cruel system was overthrown, and, crouching at his feet, was 
awaiting its final extirpation, the great, guiding hand which had 
conferred freedom, and thereby humanity, upon millions, was in 
an instant powerless, and the voice which had uttered the noble 
and inspiring call of liberty was silent. Is, then, the work to 
remain unfinished? and are the millions to slide back into what 
is worse than death, because the giver of freedom died.'^ No! 
77^^/ finished the work; that made the millions secure. There 
is not a man in all that vast country, who has learned to love Mr. 
Lincoln's principles, and whose heart has been made to writhe in 
anguish and inconsolable woe under the sense of so cruel a loss, 
but will swear himself in, from that moment of grief, to the 
complete and final accomplishment of all those objects, and 
the steady maintenance of all those principles, which filled the 
life, and constituted the chara6ler, of that great and good, — that 



Rev. y. F. Potts, B.A. 171 

loved and lamented ruler. If, then, the influence of this truly 
illustrious man upon his fellow-countrymen was great whilst he 
lived, how much greater will it be now that he has sealed his 
devotion to his country with his life; and, if slavery received its 
death-blow from his living hand, how surely must that hand, 
though now unseen, crush out into non-existence its last misera- 
ble and dying remnants! May we not, therefore, say of President 
Lincoln, as it was said of the conqueror of the Philistines, that 
" the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which 
he slew in his life "? 

After a man's death, his principles are more respected, and his 
words have more w^eight, than during his life. This is a remark 
which applies equally to the boy who has lost his parent, and the 
nation which has been deprived of its head and leading counsel- 
lor. Therefore, the same result which we have seen to be likely 
to follow in the case of slavery is, by the same rule, likely to 
follow in the case of every other noble and useful principle of 
which the late President was the advocate. Where, then, is the 
loss that our sister nation has sustained in his removal ? It must be 
admitted, that, in regard to the principles which President Lincoln 
maintained during his life, there is no loss. It must be admitted 
that there is great gain, arising from that exaltation of feeling 
with which we have before seen the words and a6lions of the 
departed are regarded, especially when, as in this case, those 
feelings are of the most tender and the deepest chara6ler, — 
written indelibly on every heart by the grief and horror caused 
by such treatment, and such a death, of so innocent, so kind, and 
so gentle a man. But with regard to the future. It may be still 
feared that the great guiding-hand will be missed in those emer- 
gencies not covered by the principles which that hand had im- 
planted. And this brings us to consider briefly, the second reason 
why great men are removed in the midst of their useful career. 



172 Dca th of P reside n t L incoln . 

No man contains in himself all perfection. It is therefore 
quite possible that he who is the best man to commence a great 
work may not be the best to complete it. The Lord alone can 
judge of a man's fitness to a6t in the future, because to him alone 
is the future known. We cannot, therefore, doubt for a moment, 
that, when the divine Providence removes a man from a useful 
post, it is because another can thereby fill it better, — that is to 
say, in the new circumstances which are about to be developed. 
We need, therefore, have no fear for the future. And we shall 
be still less disposed to harbor any such fear, when we come to 
consider the third reason why great men are removed from the 
scene of their useful labors here. 

It is that they may occupy a higher sphere of usefulness. A 
man's faculties are in no way impaired by death ; on the contrary, 
they are greatly exalted. The mind remains the same; and all 
its operations are in the highest degree facilitated by being 
divested of the material body. Surely, then, we are not to think 
of President Lincoln as dead; but rather, indeed, of his being 
more truly alive. He has doubtless already joined many of his 
compatriots who had before laid down their lives on the field of 
battle. It cannot be doubted that, for a considerable period at 
least, his thoughts and conversation will be about his countr}^; 
nay, there is every reason to suppose that his occupation will for 
the present be connected in some intimate manner with her 
atiairs. We know that spiritual beings are not distant from us, 
but exercise a constant influence upon our thoughts and affec- 
tions; and this not only in a general manner, but also by a6lual 
personal attendance upon us. Who, then, can say that the dire6t 
influence of their late President will not be far more powerful 
upon our American brethren, yea, upon all the world, than ever 
it could be before ? Who knows but that he may be permitted 
to infuse into his successors a double measure of all the great 



Rev. J. F. Potts, B.A, 173 

principles which actuated himself, — the spirit of freedom, of 
order, of peace, of gentleness, and of justice not alien to mercy? 
If, then, his influence upon the minds of his countrymen was 
great when it reached them through their bodies, how much 
greater must it be when it a6ts immediately upon their spirits! 
It has been truly said by a distinguished statesman of our own 
countr}^, that great men never die. How true this is, is at once 
evident to us, when we elevate our thoughts for a moment into 
the spiritual world, ahd see the great departed still busily occu- 
pied in works of even greater and wider importance than while 
visibly living amongst us. 

These, therefore, are some of the reasons which, I think, may 
fairly be assigned in explanation of such apparently great national 
calamities as sometimes befall nations in the death of their emi- 
nent statesmen. But, in the case of President Lincoln, I think 
we may see a fourth and crowning reason for his sudden removal, 
which, if possible, surpasses all the others in the importance of 
its consequences. It is the union of good men. And surely 
there is need enough of such a union at the present time. If 
ever there was a period when some powerful agency was called 
for to spread abroad over a devastated and divided country the 
spirit of concord, surely it is now, when the thunder-clouds of 
war are just about to roll away from the horizon of a great, and 
hitherto a peaceful, nation. And, in the event which is the sub- 
ject of this discourse, I think we may see the creation of that 
agency. There is no good man anywhere, — no man whom we 
can recognize as worthy of the name, — no man whose chara6ter 
has not become utterly debased, by constant conta6l with infernal 
influences, — but will regard that cruel and dreadful assassination 
with unmitigated and inexpressible horror. The consequence 
will be that there will simultaneously exist in the breasts of all 
such men, whether in North or South, one common, one intense 



174 Death of President Lincoln. 

and lasting, feeling. Thus there will be a true and general sym- 
pathy amongst them; and the ground will thereby be formed for 
a union of all right-minded men throughout the. country, and a 
general forgetfulness of all feelings either of triumph or disap- 
pointment. Let us all hope and pray that it may be so ! And, if 
events justify the prediction, will not the divine and prophetic 
words once more be verified, and will not a demon of death and 
disunion be slain by the death of him whose life would not have 
availed so effe6tually to destroy it? 

But we may take a wider view of the a6lion of this apparently 
calamitous event, in promoting the union of good men. And here 
we have to deal not so much with probabilities as with fafts. 
Here we have to view a most instructive, as well as a most de- 
lightful, phenomenon. It is the effeft which has been wrought 
by that event upon the entire body of our nation. Surely, if two 
nations ever had reason to be united in bonds of sympathy and 
love, or to be mutually desirous to stand by and assist each other, 
the two Atlantic nations have that reason. Nursed in the same 
cradle, speaking the same language, living under pra6tically par- 
allel institutions, working for the same objeCls, and engaged in 
the same pursuits, — surely, two such countries should ever 
consider each other as brethren, linked together by the most 
tender ties of relationship and mutual interest. And we, New- 
Churchmen, have a still dearer reason to desire the stri6t union 
of America and England; for these are the true lands of the 
New Church, and we feel ourselves shared out between the two. 
If, therefore, we are actuated by that lofty charity which tran- 
scends even the love of our country ( I mean the love of our 
Church), we shall be disposed to hail with the deepest thank- 
fulness and joy every manifestation of sympathy, and every 
strengthening of the natural union which exists between our 
respective countries. And probably no possible event could so 



Rev, 7. F. Potts, B.A, 175 

have called forth that sympathy, and thereby strengthened that 
union, as that which the divine Providence has now permitted to 
take place. One universal feeling of grief and horror pierced 
our national heart; and every man, whatever side in the late war 
he may have espoused, was at once united with every other man 
in that grief and consternation. The consequence has been such 
a national message from us, sent across the Atlantic, as will 
deeply touch the heart of our sister country, and no doubt greatly 
soften the bitterness of her grief; for there is no time like the 
period of affliction for the power of heavenly sympathy to be felt, 
and hearts that have before been utterly estranged are often united 
in the presence of some common calamity. 

" Sweet are the uses of adversity." It is good for nations, as 
well as for individual men, that they should sometimes "be 
afflifted." Have we not, therefore, every reason to hope that 
from this time a new leaf will be turned over in our national 
relationship; and the two nations, which both have in them the 
capacity for such noble progress and momentous achievements, 
will henceforth stand side by side, willing to assist as well as to 
be assisted by each other, each willing to learn from the other, 
as well as each willing to teach, — willing to see that the progress 
and welfare of the one involves the progress and welfare of the 
other, and each willing, therefore, to dread and to avert disaster 
from the other, because its own disaster would thereby be 
insured.^ If this sad but memorable event, then, be the starting- 
point of so glorious a result, have we not reason to acknowledo-e 
in this dispensation, as in all others, — to acknowledge even with 
gratitude and joy, — the a6lion of that divine Hand of love and 
wisdom which is ever operating, with infinite solicitude, for the 
welfare of the creatures it has formed ? And can we not all truly 
say of the great and good man who knew how to wield power 
with gentleness; who could detest and destroy principles ot 



176 



Death of President Lincoln. 



death, at the same time that he could treat the men who main- 
tained them with mercy; who gained the respedt and love of 
all men, and who knew how to speak kindly of his enemies, — 
can we not say of him that " the dead which he slew at his death 
were more than they which he slew in his life " ? — the dead and 
death-dealing principles of slavery, of disunion, and of discord 
among nations. 

The Intcllcdual Repository, London, 'Jtinc i, 1S65. 




y r 



DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN: 



A SERMON DELIVERED AT THE FIRST PARISH CHURCH, BANGOR, MAINE, 
ON SUNDAY, APRIL l6, 1S65 ; 

BY REV. L. S. ROWLAND. 



2 Sam. iii. 38 : "There is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel ! " 

HOW soon is our joy turned into sorrow, and our shouts of 
exultation into tears of mourning! Your hearts are full 
of the great sorrow, and so is mine; and you do not wish to have 
any foreign thoughts, however sacred in themselves, brought be- 
fore your minds this morning. Our President, the great and 
good man, is gone, struck down by the assassin's hand, in the 
flush of the nation's triumph and of his own, with the prospe6t 
before him of a speedy and triumphant termination of the great 
conflict in which he as the nation's head had been engaged so 
long: on the anniversary of the day in which the struggle began, 
and with the hemisphere resounding with the acclamations of 
four millions of bondmen, transformed by his a6l from chattels 
into men, his career is suddenly cut short by the hand of vio- 
lence. 

Perhaps it was fitting that he should die thus. For the fixing 
and perpetuation of his victim's fame, the assassin could not have 
chosen a more opportune moment for the deed. With no stain 
upon his chara(5ler, as a patriot and a man; when the nation was 

23 



178 Dca th of President L incoln . 

ready to acknowledge his wisdom as a statesman, as well as his 
honesty of purpose; when his polic}' in the condu6t of the nation 
had been proved by its brilliant success to be the wisest and the 
best; when he had received the highest of proofs, by his re-elec- 
tion to his responsible office, that he possessed the fullest confi- 
dence of the nation ; and when even foreign and covertly hostile 
powers had been forced to acknowledge his skill as a ruler and 
diplomatist, — at such a time, if fame, imperishable through all 
generations, had been the obje6l of his ambition, he might have 
chosen to die, and to die as he did. In a longer career he might 
have committed mistakes that would have cast some shadow on 
the brightness of his fame. If he had died in his bed by the 
power of disease, — though even then the nation would have 
mourned hiin as a father, — his departure would not have so im- 
pressed his memory into the heart of the nation and the world. 
But now, his name will be enshrined for ever among those who 
have sealed by their blood their fidelity to the rights of mankind. 
The martyr's crown is now added to his other claims upon the 
remembrance and the gratitude of posterity; and, in all the noble 
army of martyrs, no name will shine with a purer and brighter 
lustre in the pages of future history, than that of Abraham Lin- 
coln. 

We weep, therefore, not for him, but for ourselves and for our 
children. His fame is established for ever; but what is to be- 
come of the Ship of State, now left upon the stormy sea, without 
his wise guidance.^ He seemed to have been raised up by Pro- 
vidence for the purpose of guiding the nation through its present 
peril. His qualities of mind and heart were just what were 
needed for the direction of affairs in such stormy times as these. 
Without his cool judgment, his moderation, to temper the excited 
counsels of the other branches of the Government; without his 
kindness and conciliation in dealing with both friends and foes, 



Rev. L, S. Rowland. 179 



— the nation would probably have been irretrievably ruined long 
ere this. We thought him, at the beginning of the confli6t, slow 
and vacillating. We longed for the will and boldness of a Jack- 
son at the head of affairs. But subsequent events have shown, 
that his moderation was the highest wisdom; that his slowness 
was the most speed}^ method of accomplishing the great work in 
hand. We had confidence in his honesty from the beginning; 
but we had learned to call him great as "well as good, and to view 
him as the centre of the nation's hopes for the future. His career ^ 
as a ruler is one of the most remarkable in history. His success 
in uniting the people in his support, and in so conducting the 
delicate and important duties of his trust as to escape all asper- 
sion upon his fidelit}" to his country, is almost w^ithout parallel. 
No public man in the history of the country, — not even Wash- 
ington himself, — in his own time, ever gained so deep a hold 
upon the afteftions of the people; and this was accomplished, not 
by any of the tricks of a demagogue, but solely by his complete 
devotion to the highest interests of the nation, and his eminent 
fitness for his post. Can the loss be supplied? We needed him 
in the future as much as we needed him in the past, perhaps 
more. In the great questions of reconstru6tion that are now 
coming before the Government, that same cool judgment and 
clear sagacity are needed quite as much as in the condu6l of the 
war. The great fear resting on the hearts of thoughtful men, 
after our military triumph over the rebels Avas felt to be assured, 
w^as, that mistakes might be made in the final settlement of our 
national difficulties, which would lose us all that we had gained, 
and sow the seeds of strife for 3^ears to come. Our great reli- 
ance, under God, was in the honesty and sagacity of our Chief 
Magistrate, whose past success we felt to be a guarantee for the 
future. No man can take his place at the head of the government, 
and inspire such confidence in the hearts of the people. We fear 



i8o Death of President Lincoln. 



now, as we look forward, lest in some way, through official in- 
competency or unfaithfulness, our recent triumphs over the 
enemy shall prove barren of their expefted fruit of blessing for 
the nation and the world. Our trusty pilot is stricken down just 
as we are among the rocks and shoals that line the shores of 
peace, and there is now danger that we may go down within sight 
of the desired haven. God in Heaven avert so dire a calamity! 
For the sake of humanity, and for thy kingdom's sake, save us 
from the evils of confusion and anarchy! As thou hast taken 
away our Moses, raise us up a Joshua to lead us unto the Land of 
Promise! 

It was no part of my purpose to dwell at length on the char- 
after of the President, or to prophesy the consequences that may 
follow his removal. It will be more fitting to consider for a mo- 
ment some of the lessons which this terrible event is adapted to 
teach. 

May we not believe, that one part of God's purpose in permit- 
ting this atrocious crime was to teach us still more impressively, 
even than by the events of the past four years, our entire depen- 
dence upon him, and to lead us to place all our hopes for the fu- 
ture in Heaven alone. We had learned this lesson partially, but 
perhaps not sufficiently. Perhaps we were trusting too much in 
the wisdom of the Government. Perhaps there was danger, that 
our military triumphs might turn away our thoughts from God, 
and that we might, without some further discipline, return to our 
idolatry of men and human agency. Perhaps, in the public re- 
joicings of the last week, there had been too much thought of 
the human agents by whom our vi6tories were gained, and too 
little recognition of the hand of God. Perhaps our reliance for 
the future was too much on human wisdom, and not enough on 
the God of Israel. 

It has been one of our greatest temptations to forget the ruler- 



Rev. L. S. Rowland. i8i 



ship of God in our national affairs. It has been our great sin as 
a people, through all the years of our history. Our trials during 
the last four years had done something in teaching us the fragility 
of reliance upon human wisdom and power; but perhaps this 
new stroke was needed to impress the lesson ineradicably upon 
us. If our President had been spared to us, he might have taken 
that place in our hopes for the future which belongs only to God. 
This support is now taken from us, and we must now put our 
trust in Heaven alone. God is a jealous God. He will not give 
his glory to another. Every idol that interposes itself between 
him and his creatures, he will destroy. How sad the thought, 
that it may have been our excessive love and reverence for the 
President, that made it necessary for God to suffer wicked men 
to execute their deed of blood upon him! 

May we not believe, also, that it was God's purpose in this 
event, to bring out more clearly to the view of the world the 
atrocious nature of that system of iniquity in whose interest the 
crime was committed. 

The fa6ts of the case, as thus far developed, will not warrant 
us in charging this deed of blood dire6tly upon the rebel Govern- 
ment. Perhaps they knew nothing of it, and would have dis- 
countenanced such a desperate deed if the plan had been revealed 
to them. But that the crime is a legitimate result of the cause 
for which they are contending, and that it is in harmony with 
their conduct through the whole war, is manifest. We ought not 
to have been surprised that a system, that could originate a rebel- 
lion against the best government on earth, should i-esort to any 
means to secure success, or to revenge defeat. The system of 
slavery itself was "the sum of all villanies;" and why should its 
abettors hesitate to assassinate any one whom they feared or 
hated as an enemy of their cause ? It was in its very nature a 
system of violence, the nurse of every deed of outrage and shame. 



1 8 2 Dea th of Presiden t L incoln . 

It seems to have been a part of God's purpose, from the beginning 
of this conflict, to exhibit to the gaze of the world all the foul 
enormities of the s3'Stem. It is wonderful how slow we have 
been, to heed the teachings of Providence in this respe6l; how 
blind the e3'es even of the people of the North have been, to this 
monstrous iniquity. At the beginning of the war, we looked 
upon its radical opponents as fanatics and madmen. The very- 
principles of the institution ought to have fixed us in deadly hos- 
tility against it; but we refused to look at it in the light of princi- 
ple, and were willing to temporize and compromise with the 
infernal system. God determined, therefore, to use measures of 
instru6lion that would be heeded. He permitted the upholders 
of the system to rend the Union asunder, and to deluge the land 
with blood. He gave our sons and brothers into their hands to 
be tortured and starved in their prisons. He suffered them to 
send their piratical ships out upon the ocean to burn our shipping, 
and transform the mariner's signals of distress into signs of warn- 
ing. He permitted them to send incendiaries to burn our cities; 
and now, to impress the lesson still more deeply, he permits the 
assassin to take the life of the first officer of the Government. 
No stroke could have been more impressive. Nothing could 
have struck more deeply. If this crime does not awaken us to a 
sense of the atrocity of the rebellion, and of the system which 
originated it, nothing can. It was perhaps needed to fix the na- 
tional heart more unchangeably in its purpose ; to root out the 
evil, utterly and for ever; and to lead even us of the North to a 
deeper penitence before God for our past complicity with the 
great crime against humanity and Heaven. If there is now in the 
loyal North a man who can longer apologize for slavery, let him 
be declared a reprobate, lost to all the feelings of humanity, blind 
to all the teachings of God's providence. If there is a man who 
can think of this deed of blood, and find it in his heart to utter 



Rev. L. S. Rowla7id. 183 



one word of sympathy for the rebellion, let him receive the name 
of traitor, and suffer a traitor's doom. 

This atrocious crime will also, I trust, lead us to see the need 
of greater sternness in dealing with traitors. It should awaken 
the Government and the people to the necessity of visiting upon 
the originators of the rebellion, to which this deed of assassina- 
tion is but a fitting accompaniment, the severest penalty of the 
law, if they shall fall into our hands. An ill-timed demand for 
clemency on the part of the Government towards the rebels had 
begun to pervade the public mind. Let no blood be shed; let us 
deal with the rebels as with erring brethren, — has been the exhor- 
tation to the Government, of would-be philanthropists. In the 
generous exultation of victory, there was danger that the claims 
of w^ar and justice might be utterly forgotten, and that posterity 
might be left to the inference that treason against a righteous 
government law was not a crime deserving of punishment. We 
needed some further manifestation of the awful guilt of this 
rebellion. We needed some stroke of crime that should, by its 
atrocity, startle us from our gentle mood. We needed some devel- 
opment of the diabolical spirit of the rebels, that should force the 
conviction upon us of the necessity of the sternest exercise of 
retributive justice, — positive in our dealing with the responsible 
authors of the rebellion. " Now let justice be done," was the 
suppressed utterance of all loyal men yesterday, as, with tearful 
eyes, they spoke together of our beloved Lincoln lying in his 
blood. That utterance was inspired by a principle implanted 
within us by the Creator, and its mandate should be heeded as 
the voice of God. 

We read in the Bible of a sin against God, which can never 
have forgiveness, either in this world or in the world to come. 
If there be a crime on earth that stands in a like relation to human 
law, of that crime have the leaders of this rebellion been guilty; 



184 Death of President Lmcoln. 

and they should find no place for mercy, though they seek it care- 
fully and with tears. The blood of our murdered President is 
upon them. 

Even if they were not cognizant of the plan of assassination, 
they should be held accountable for the crime as the legitimate 
issue of the wicked cause for which they are contending. The 
guilt of a hundred thousand murders is upon them. They are 
guilty of all the blood that has been shed in the course of this 
war, and of all the evil which it has brought upon the land; and 
it would be a sin against humanity, and against high Heaven, to 
remit one jot or tittle of the penalty they deserve. The blood of 
our murdered President, and of tens of thousands of our sons and 
brothers who have fallen on the field of battle, cries to Heaven 
for justice upon the guilty. We cannot disregard the cry, with- 
out making ourselves guilty before God. I encourage no spirit 
of revenge, no feeling of hatred toward our enemies. I simply 
urge the claims of justice. I believe it is, one of the lessons 
which this event should impress upon us, that they should have 
justice without mercy who have shown no mercy. 

We look to the future, my friends, with anxiety. Our trusted 
leader is gone, and we are not sure that his successor possesses 
the qualities required for the discharge of such responsible du- 
ties. Let us put our trust in God. He will not suffer the cause 
of righteousness and truth to fail. He will give the needed guid- 
ance to our rulers, if w^e humbl}' ask it for them. His hand will 
guide us through the perils that are now before us, and yet bless 
our bleeding land with prosperity and peace. In the midst of 
our sorrow for the murdered President, let us not forget to pray 
for him upon whom the duties of the Government now devolve. 
He takes his great responsibility, he says, trusting in God. May 
the mantle of the departed Lincoln fall upon him ! May he have 
the wisdom, firmness, and moderation, which are needed to guide 



Rev. L. S. How land. 



185 



the Ship of State through its dangers into the haven of peace! 
And may the whole nation, taught by this awful event the frailty 
of human hopes, put its trust in the God of Israel, and look to 
him as the source of national strength and prosperity! 

Bangor Weekly Courier, April 25, 1865. 




24 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S DEATH 



A SERMON DELIVERED IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NATCHEZ, MISS., 
ON SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 1865 ; 

BY REV. JOS. B. STRATTON, D.D., 

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 



Psalms, xi. 3 : " If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do.'' 



A GLANCE at the stru6lure of the Psalm will show that 
David in this passage is quoting the language of some 
party, supposed to be in conference with him, — a tempter, we may 
call him, who is seeking by his suggestions to shake his fortitude, 
and corrupt his fidelity, as a servant of God. His opening 
remark, " In the Lord put I my trust," is his answer to these 
suggestions. " Why try to overthrow my faith," he seems to 
say, " by revealing to me the perils and calamities by which I am 
menaced? Why try to drive me into unbelieving despondency 
by arraying before me the machinations or the triumphs of 
human and satanic malice.^ Why tell me that the wicked are 
bending their bows, and making ready their arrows upon the 
string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart? Why 
remind me, that the foundations are destroyed; that lawlessness 
and iniquity abound; that social order is broken up; that justice 
is driven from her tribunals, and even the majesty of Govern- 



Rev. Jos. B. Stratton, D.D. 187 

ment profaned in its san<5luary, and then ask me, what can the 
righteous do, and counsel me as a helpless and abandoned thing 
to flee like a bird to the mountain ? My answer to all this is, In 
the Lord put I my trust! " 

The drift of the query in the text, b}^ taking it thus in connec- 
tion with the preceding part of the Psalm, may easily be discov- 
ered. It is, in fa6l, no query at all, but rather a statement, — an 
allegation. It means to declare, that, in the case proposed, — in 
such a conjecture of alarming and depressing circumstances as 
had been set forth, — there was absolutely nothing for the right- 
eous man to do. And with his interlocutor in this conclusion, the 
Psalmist joins issue. He maintains that there is something for 
the righteous man to do, even when the foundations are des- 
troyed; and he assumes that flight, retreat, a resort to silence 
and seclusion, are criminal dereli6lions from his duty, — an inex- 
cusable failure to bear his testimony, and a6l his part, as a right- 
eous man. The idea which seems to be enunciated in this answer 
is, that the righteous man or Christian, as such, has a special work 
to do, or fun6lion to exercise, at every period and in every posi- 
tion in which he may find himself placed. The idea is an 
important one, and I wish to set it before you this morning, with 
all the emphasis that I can give to it. The righteous man or 
Christian has that chara^er to exemplify under all possible cir- 
cumstances. He can never drop it, or suspend it, or compromise 
it. It must appear in his thinking, his judging, his feeling, his 
speaking, and his doing. As the Lord's servant, his work is 
simply and exclusively to fulfil his Lord's will; to be the man 
whom his Lord would have him be. Should " the foundations 
be destroyed;" should his own mind be driven from its balance 
by the onset of natural passion; should the community with 
which he is identified, like a ship torn from its moorings by 
the rush of the hurricane, be swept wildly hither and thither 



1 88 President Lincoh'Cs Death. 

by convulsive excitements, — he must maintain his principle, hold 
fast by his rule, and, like the compass on that ship's deck, 
tranquilly fulfilling its office amidst the tumult of the storm, 
remain true to himself and God, though every thing else seems 
surrendered to turbulence and disorganization. He must show 
himself the righteous man, the Christian, though a thousand 
impetuous forces within him and around him are impelling him 
to the assumption of a different chara6ler. The religion, as I 
have a hundred times taught you, which does not keep you 
abiding in Christ, and Christ abidifig in you, is no religion in the 
judgment of the gospel. The religion which does not keep the 
spiritual branch steadily and permanently united to its stock j 
which does not evidence itself, steadily and permanently, by phe- 
nomena in the life of the soul, identical with those which appear in 
the life of its divine Head, — is not the religion which the Saviour 
gave to his disciples. That religion contemplates difficulties in 
the practice of it; nay, is required to establish its genuineness 
in any case, by its readiness and ability to sustain itself under 
difficulties. What else do those two great features in it, so 
broadly delineated in the Scriptures, — the obligation to self- 
denial, and the obligation to unlikeness to the world, — mean? If 
you are not prepared and accustomed to deny self, to repress 
the passions and mortify the affections of the flesh, when these are 
at variance with the law of Christ; if you are not prepared and 
accustomed to differ from the world, when, through sympathy and 
complicity with it, you are liable to be wrought into tempers 
and urged into a<?ts in confli6twith the law of Christ, — you cannot, 
and do not, possess the true spirit of his followers. That allows 
no deviation, and no lapses in its loyalty. It acknowledges him 
as absolute and as perpetual master. It makes him master, just 
as truly when it is hard to do so, as when it is easy to do so. It 
demands that the individual who possesses it, should be uniformly 



Rev. Jos. B. Stratlon, D.D. 189 

and consistently the character which the law of Christ indicates ; 
that in the face of all opposition, originating in his own nature, 
and all springing from the example or authority of the world, and 
even all embodied in the wiles and assaults of the Devil, he 
should prove himself the righteous man. We may say, there- 
fore, as the Psalmist has said, that, always and everywhere, there 
is something for the righteous man to do. And we may say 
farther, what perhaps is implied in his saying, that especially in 
those exigencies when the powers of evil have reached such a 
height and compass in their operations that the very foundations 
of society and government are destroyed; when, it might seem, 
there was nothing for Christian faith to do, but bow before the 
storm, and hide itself, impotent and unheeded, in obscurity, — it is 
the duty of the righteous man to kindle anew the flame of his 
faith, and strive by bolder efforts than ever to throw the light of 
its influence upon the gloom and confusion which are weltering 
around him. 

This principle I have taken the pains to state at this length, 
because it is under the authority of it, that I shall press upon your 
consideration the remarks I am about to make. These remarks, 
you will probably have anticipated, will have reference to the 
extraordinary position in which we have been placed by the 
awful and astounding tragedy at the seat of the Federal Govern- 
ment, which has been announced to us during the last week. It 
has seemed to me, that sacred as it has been my habit to keep 
this pulpit to the promulgation of the stri6l themes of the gospel, 
and to the exercise of the proper function of Christ's ambassadors, 
" the beseeching men to be reconciled to God," I was called upon 
to-day, in view of such an occurrence, to let the voice of Provi- 
dence propose m}^ subject, while the aid of Scripture should be 
invoked to give the light under which to view it. 

The shock occasioned by the death of the Chief Magistrate 



190 President Lincoln'' s Death. 

of the nation, under which the public mind is yet reeling in 
bewilderment and dismay, has left, I doubt not, wherever it has 
spread, just that impression which the Psalmist's words, "the 
foundations are destroyed," describe. An earthquake rending 
the soil beneath our feet could not have struck a deeper sensation 
of horror into our hearts, or prostrated them with a more pro- 
found feeling of calamity. The words which reported to us the 
crime and its mournful issue broke upon us with the stunning 
effe6t of a thunder-clap. Their import was too startling, too 
appalling, to be credited. The "foundations," the things familiar 
and established, the ideas, sentiments, instin6ls, usages, and tradi- 
tions, in which we had been accustomed to confide, and which 
we thouofht were as stable as our civilization, and as sacred as 
our religion, were indeed overturned by it. The ground upon 
which we had been wont to stand seemed dissolving under us. 
Time and place grew unreal. Centuries seemed to have been 
expunged from the calendar of the world's history, and we were 
rolled back into the grim scenery of barbaric lands. A vision of 
ferocious hate and bloody violence, such as imagination had 
sometimes looked at in its pi6lures of brutal and savage anti- 
quity, stood revealed in our midst, as a present and palpable fa6t. 
Our minds revolted at it. Our eyes turned in terror from it. 
Involuntarily we closed them with our clasped hands, and sought 
thus to escape seeing the truth of that which we were forced to 
confess we could not make untrue. Alas, no! With all our 
shuddering aversion to see its truth, we could not, we cannot, 
make it untrue. We never can. To the end of time, it will 
remain recorded in our national annals, that the man who filled 
the seat, and wore the honors of the representative of the sover- 
eignty of this great American Republic, perished under the hand 
of an assassin. We could not have believed that such a record 
would ever darken and sadden those annals. We could not have 



Rev. Jos. B. Sf rat ton J D.D. 191 

believed that, beneath these skies and on this soil, the creature 
could have breathed, who could have perpetrated such a deed. 
And yet, in bitter sorrow and shame we make the confession, it 
has been done. Others, my friends, will tell you how, in their 
judgment, you ought to feel and a6t in view of such an event. It 
will be my endeavor, standing on the platform, and trying to 
express the spirit of the gospel of Christ, to point out to you in a 
few particulars, what, in my judgment, is the Christian way of 
feeling and a6ling in view of it. Always and everywhere, we 
have seen, the righteous man has his post to fill, and his work to 
do. He has them here and 7tow. The wide lament which is 
going up from the nation's palpitating heart — "The foundations 
are destroyed, the foundations are destroyed!" — calls upon him, 
amidst all the tumultuous excitement of the occasion, to main- 
tain his character, and to refle6l, resolve, and express himself 
distin6tly as a righteous man. 

Speaking, then, from the stand-point occupied by such a man 
(it may seem almost superfluous for me to say it, and yet I deem 
it highly expedient to do so), I would say, in the first place, that 
this a6t of assassination must be adjudged an unmitigated and 
gigantic sin against God., and as such is to be regarded with 
utter abhorrence and reprobation. In this light, pre-eminently, it 
must present itself to every Christian mind. Its bearings upon 
ourselves, under the relations in which we may have stood per- 
sonally to the object affefted by it, must not be suffered to divert 
our attention from those which attach to it in this particular 
aspe6l. Here is a crime, an atrocious, a diabolical crime, — an 
outrage upon the majesty of God. It was an exhibition of malig- 
nity on the part of the doer of it, not merely against his human 
vi6lim, but against God. He was a hater of God; and the 
righteous man, with a holy indignation which the Scriptures have 
taught him how to express, can only say of him, " Do not I hate 



192 President Lincoln'' s Death. 

them, O Lord! that hate thee? And am I not grieved with 
those that rise up against thee ? I hate them with perfe6l hatred : 
I count them mine enemies ! " There is reason to fear, that our 
hearts have grown callous under the teachings of war, or may be 
so pre-occupied by personal feeling of one kind or another, that 
we may fail to be affe6ted adequately with the enormous turpi- 
tude of even a deed of violence like this. I beg you to look at it, 
therefore, with me in a few of its features. 

First, then, it was murder, — murder conceived, and, in part, 
executed, upon a scale which makes it a massacre. It was man 
shedding man's blood, deliberately, maliciously, and illegally. 
Viewed merely under this aspect, it was an enormous sin, — a 
sin which God has branded with special tokens of his detestation, 
and consigned to the heaviest penalty which human justice can 
inflia. 

But, more than this, it was an impious invasion of the domain 
of divine Providence. Every human life is a sphere under the 
administration of that Providence. But the life of the magistrate, 
the sovereign, from the vaster scope of the interests which 
are comprehended in it, in a peculiar sense, may be said to be 
such a sphere. The life of the magistrate, the sovereign, is 
an essential element in that apparatus by which God mediately 
governs the world, — an instrument upon whose agency is sus- 
pended the execution of his policy concerning the world. It is 
one of those " foundations " or pillars, upon which he has been 
pleased to rest the vast and complex scheme of his purposes. 
To destroy such a life is to contract the guilt of a hardihood 
which dares to cross the path of Jehovah, — to snatch the sceptre 
from his hand, and violently reverse or confound his counsels. 

Again, it is an a6t which desecrates, in the most flagrant form, 
the divine ordinance of government. I sa}^ the divine ordinance 
of government, for with the Bible in my hand I can give no lower 



Rev. Jos. B. Stratto7i^ D.D. 193 

chara6ter to government. It is a creature of God as truly, and 
almost in the same sense, as man is. For the attainment of all 
worthy ends for which man can be supposed to have been 
created is conditioned upon the existence of government. Now, 
government as the creature or ordinance of God is a most sacred 
thing. It is to be regarded with religious reverence, and ap- 
proached and transa6ted with with religious respe6l. I know this 
idea has been perverted, has been made the basis of a " divine 
right of kings," and has been carried among the despotisms of the 
Old World to the length of denuding the people of all political 
rights, and making them the mere property and prey of their 
sovereigns. This abuse has received, or is receiving, its correc- 
tion, and may now be considered obsolete. But it may well be 
questioned, whether we in this country, under our better philoso- 
phy, have not been falling into an abuse in the opposite quarter, 
and fabricating a " divine right of the people," by which Govern- 
ment, as a positive creature of God, has been shorn of its rights, 
as much as the people w^ere of theirs, under the prevalence of the 
old heresy of the " divine right of kings." Government, as an 
independent, substantial fa6t; a sacred thing, placed by God 
amongst us and over us; something different from the people, 
and the citizen and voter ; a priestly institution, " called of 
God, as w^as Aaron," to minister to our national tribes, and 
bearing like him the inscription, " Holiness to the Lord," upon 
its venerable brow, — has it not come to wear a common look, 
to lose credit and san6tity in our eyes ? Have not the arts of the 
politician and demagogue, like the scissors of Delilah, robbed it 
of its native prerogative, and forced it, w^ith its eyes put out, to 
employ its powers in making sport for the Philistines of faction 
and party ? And may not this oversight, this deterioration of its 
chara6ter as a divine ordinance, have helped to bring on the fear- 
ful convulsion through which we have been passing? And may 

25 * 



194 President Lincobi^s Death. 

it not have had something to do, in preparing the assassin's heart 
to entertain the sacrilegious purpose, which we have just seen 
consummated? However this may be, the deed has been done. 
God's ordinance of Government has been violated in the person 
of its representative; and, as he has taught us that his own name 
stands identified with all his ordinances, a fearful intensity of guilt 
must attach to the a6t. 

Again : apart from the evil inherent in the nature of it, such an 
a6t draws after it a train of appalling consequences, for all of 
which the a6t itself must be responsible. The jar given to the 
political system by the sudden destruction of the party in whose 
hands the administration of it is placed, always threatens the 
occurrence, or an approach to the occurrence, of general anarchy. 
A crisis, pregnant quite possibly with issues fatal to the Govern- 
ment, is at once created by it. How far the ruin which shall fol- 
low the blow which strikes down the sovereign shall spread into 
the organism of the nation, no mind can predial. The madman 
who resolves to give the blow, does not know, — does not care. 
His malice is a torch, which, in order to achieve its particular 
aim, would recklessly light the fires which should wrap a king- 
dom or a continent in flames. As another result: his a6t is 
adapted to start and give fierceness to a spirit of revenge and a 
process of retaliation, by which a whole trail of crimes of the 
same nature with his own may be entailed upon the land. God, 
in his great mercy, has thus far restrained this very natural conse- 
quence of the recent atrocity; and every Christian man and 
woman ought to pray, that, of his great mercy, he will continue to 
do so. But it is not the fault of the author of it, that his devilish 
deed has not evoked ten thousand of those devils which are truly 
said to lurk in every human heart, to rush out upon a mission of 
vengeance. And for this possible consequence of his a6l, he is 
responsible. And once more: the perpetrator of such an a6t im- 



Rev. Jos. B. Strattoji, D.D. 195 

plicates the innocent in the suspicion, and exposes them, more or 
less, to the infamy, of being concerned with him in his wicked 
enterprise. Into the gulf, in which he drowns himself, he draws 
down thousands of unsuspecting and guiltless neighbors. The 
secrec}' in which he wraps his plot gives room for this result. A 
bewildered and excited public judge quickly, and, sometimes, 
wildly; and, like people in the dark when an enemy has been 
discovered among them, may charge every companion with being 
that enemy. The assassin's motive may have been a private one, 
his deed strictly his own (I devoutly believe, in the case be- 
fore us, such was the fa6l) ; but others, almost necessarily, will 
be burdened w^ith the reproach of his crime, if they do not have 
to suffer its literal penalty. 

Now, revolving this sad deed, whose chara6ler w^e are con- 
sidering, in these various lights, how tremendously its guilt grows 
upon us! It is all that I have called it, — an unmitigated and 
gigantic sin against God. So the righteous man will regard it. 
So every individual who looks at it with the eye, the mind, the 
heart, w^hich the religion of Christ gives him, will regard it. He 
must do so, or he belies his charafter and his principle; and 
hence, he must and will condemn it, and abhor it, and feel that 
the wrath of a just God ought to pursue and punish it. 

But the duty of such a man will, I think, lead him a step fur- 
ther. He "wnll find in this horrible outbreak of human wicked- 
ness an occasion that will move him to profound sorrow and 
humiliation. He w^ill admit a feeling of mortification to his 
heart, that w^ill abase it to the dust. Deploring the crime, he will 
also deplore the faft, that, in this age and in this land, such a 
crime had become possible; and that the nature of man, any- 
where, is capable of such corruption as to make the commission 
of such a crime possible. You and I, my friends, have turned 
from it with sickening horror. Like the patriarch, at the thought 



196 President LincoMs Death. 

of the conspirator and the assassin, we exclaim, " O my soul ! 
come not thou into their secret : unto their assembly, mine 
honor! be not thou united." But, alas! the author of this deed 
was a man ; and one who, we have reason to believe, called him- 
self an American. And if it be true, as seems probable, that this 
man and this American was but the agent of a banded crew of 
like spirits, the faft, with an indefinitely augmented force, meets 
us, tha't, in our very bosom, men — Americans — of this fiendish 
type are to be found. Amidst our churches and schoolhouses 
and missionary institutions, ministers of Satan, of the tallest stat- 
ure, have been growing up. It is a fa6l which one might weep 
over, — -a fa6l which may well make the head of the rio-hteous 
man hang down, and his heart sink. What an infernal thing is 
human nature, when the evil that is in it has opportunity and en- 
couragement to mature ! And how faint has been the zeal, and 
how feeble the efforts, after all, of the servants of God, in the 
attempt to check the development of this evil amongst our people ! 
The material still exists amongst us, it would seem from these 
indications, which would, if the occasion offered, convert our fair 
land into a volcano of crime and butchery, like France in her 
revolution of 1789. Hellish passions are working amongst us, it 
would seem, which might, under due stimulus, so demonize the 
mass, that assassination should become the business of each hour, 
and even women, young and fair as Charlotte Corday, be found 
ready to plant the dagger in the heart of a personal or political 
foe. Oh! this " destroying of the foundations" is a symptom which 
calls solemnly upon the righteous man, not only to ask what he 
has to do, but to reflect soberly upon what he has done, — or, 
rather, what he has not done ; to take a more profound and affe6t- 
ing view of the magnitude of the task of rescuing men from the 
domination of sin; and to resolve, with an humbling admission of 
•past unfaithfulness, that the battle with Satan shall be waged 



Rev, yos. B. Stratton, D.D. 197 

hereafter with an energy and heartiness akin to the ardor of 
primitive apostoHc consecration. It is time, my friends, that we 
were all learning that the salvation of our country depends, 
chiefly and ultimately, upon the goodness of the people. State- 
craft, with all its medicines and its surgery, cannot keep it alive. 
We proje6l our different theories and policies, and then advocate 
them, and argue for them, and perhaps fight over them, as if the 
existence of the nation depended upon the adoption of just those 
which we fa\"or; while the truth is, with good habits and good 
principles in the people, the nation would thrive under any one 
of these theories and policies, in nearly or quite the same degree. 
Positive institutions, governmental mechanism, and political plat- 
form-building,«will never keep a Republic ere6t and prosperous, 
unless there is, underlying all, the element of sound, right char- 
acter in the people; and all righteous men as they stand and look 
over the precipice, to the verge of which we seem to have been 
dragged, will confess that it is just in this direction the w^ork of 
piety and patriotism which they are to do in the future lies. The 
sorrow and humiliation of this hour point to this work; and point 
too to the necessity of doing it, in that convi6tion of human 
weakness, which couples, with every stroke of the laborer's hand, 
a prayer from his heart to the God of grace, that he may " give 
the increase." 

But something beyond sorrow and humiliation even, it seems 
to me, is included in the emotions becoming the position in which 
Ave stand. The serious mind, I am persuaded, will see in it 
cause for the greatest alarm. An enginery which is the very 
•climax and embodiment of all lawlessness has reared itself upon 
our national pla'tform. A President of the United States, — one 
of that august succession of Republican Rulers, which, com- 
mencing with Washington, had run on in auspicious continuity 
till it had reached its sixteenth link, has fallen under the hand of 



198 President Lincoln's Death. 

an assassin! Such an event has in it something of the chara6ler 
of a portent. It fills the heart with consternation. It strikes the 
ear like the " Woe, woe, woe ! " of the Apocalyptic angel, and 
the eye, like the handwriting on Belshazzar's walls. There is 
a significance in it, which good men ought to ponder with fear 
and trembling. It is the inauguration of a spirit and a procedure 
which, in the fell sweep of their operations, strike down every 
bulwark of the Commonwealth's safety and life. The death-blow 
that the ruffian deals his vi6tim stabs to the heart Constitution, 
law, morals, liberty, — every thing, in fa6l, which is vital to the 
body-politic, to society, and to man. And yet this fiend of disor- 
ganization, which we thought, under our advanced civilization, 
and our wise political philosophy, had been bound these many 
years in his infernal cave, has suddenly appeared amongst us, in 
undiminished audacity and malignity. This type of national de- 
generacy — this precursor of national ruin — has emerged from 
the abyss, and confronted the people of this land. And what 
should the righteous man do, in view of such a phenomenon, but 
confess and realize fairly its meaning; admit the crisis that it indi- 
cates; and, under a solemn sense of the imminency of the danger 
involved in it, rally the powers of public virtue and good citizen- 
ship everywhere, to aid him in arresting the country in its prog- 
ress towards licentiousness and dissolution.? 

And then, in the next place, is there not a call addressed to 
the righteous man, by this national calamity, to apply to himself 
the rebuke — apparently contained in it — for the popular dispo- 
sition to conne6l the expe6lation of success with, and ascribe the 
glory of success to, the wisdom of man, rather than God.? The 
principle which the Bible teaches us to recognize in the affairs of 
nations, as well as of men, is (to use the Psalmist's beautiful 
words) this: "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain 
that build it : except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh 



Rev. Jos. B. Siratton, D.D. 199 

but in vain." It is possible, clearly, to have a confidence in our- 
selves or others, which does amount to a repudiation of all de- 
pendence upon God. We see, or we make exemplifications of it 
every day. And, whenever this is the case, the Bible principle, 
just stated, warns us that our spirit is construed by God, as an 
expression of hostility to himself. Now, shall I err in the con- 
je6lure, that this strange, this appalling " destroying of the foun- 
dations," wrought though it has been by wicked hands, has been 
suffered to befall us, in part at least, to remind us as a people, 
that our spirit has reached this interdi6led point? The man, who 
from his position, more remarkabl}^ perhaps than any one who 
has lived within our day, had come to verify the figure of " a pil- 
lar of the State; " upon whom, at the moment the whole people, 
with one hearty consent, were resting the entire weight of their 
interests and their hopes; who, in a long and arduous struggle, 
had achieved such results as seemed to prove him competent to 
achieve all else that needed to be done, with infallible success, — 
is suddenly cut down, and his earthly work closed. Oh, does it 
not seem as if there were a voice in such a providence, saying in 
tones of thunder, " Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his 
nostrils! I am the Lord, and my glory w^ill I not give to an- 
other"? Does it not seem as if such a rebuke indicated such a 
fault, as the precise mark at which it had been levelled? As if it 
were meant, beyond a doubt, to startle the nation into a sense of 
its undutiful and offensive bearing towards God, in its habitual 
adulation of itself ; its magnifying of its own resources; its chart- 
ing out its own future, as if its destiny were in its own hands; 
and its almost deifying its own institutions and men? The right- 
eous man, as he sits awe-struck and subdued to-day, I am sure, 
will feel that there is serious ground to think so; and, over the 
shattered column of his country's — perhaps — idolatrous trust, will 
try to accept for himself and others the admonition to maintain 



200 President Lmcohz's Death. 

henceforth, between the Creator and his creature, that just rela- 
tion and proportion which cannot be denied, without affront to 
the majesty of the former. 

And then, following upon this, is there not a ground, which 
the righteous man with his scriptural perceptions may discover, 
for hope for a better and a healthier day for the country, by rea- 
son of the very fa6l of its present affli6tions ? When the founda- 
tions were destroyed, and the tempter would urge the Psalmist to 
despondency, and a desertion of his faith in government and soci- 
ety, he makes his answer, " In the Lord put I my trust." If faith 
in human means and dependencies has been checked by this 
great national exigency, faith in the Lord has been challenged 
and encouraged by it. " Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth," 
"may be applied, I presume, as well to communities as to individ- 
uals. The Father's stroke that has wrath in the manner of it has 
mercy in the design of it; and the smartings which the wrath 
occasions, are intended to prepare the way for the offices of 
mercy. The Christian, at least, will so reason, and will look 
through and beyond this dark day, and cheer himself with the 
prospe6t of sunshine and repose again. The Lord reigneth, and 
can make the wrath of man and of devils to praise him, and to 
work out his benevolent designs towards those who fear him. A 
harsh school we have been passing through, and a strange pro- 
cess of trial has been allotted to us at the end; but is it not all 
meant to make us a wiser and a better people? Is it not all 
proof, that God has a ministry for us to fulfil yet in the world, 
and would educate us for it? Are not the very pains he takes 
to keep us from forsaking him, to bring us to an humbler and 
deeper acknowledgment of him, evidence that he has not for- 
saken us? 

And once more : in confirmation of this hope, may I not re- 
mark, that, to the righteous man, God, through the instrumentality 



Rev. yos. B. Stratton, D.D. 201 

of this fearful catastrophe which we are deploring, is holding out 
inducements and persuasives to aid in the restoration of that unity 
of heart and feeling, which is so sorely needed in the land? 
Where is the righteous man who does not find his state of heart 
and feeling, in view of this catastrophe, rejie6led in every one of 
his class ? Righteous men — if we mean by this term no more 
than right-thinking and right-judging men — must be alike in 
their sentiments here; and alike too in the depth and vehemence 
of their sentiments. However much divided they may have 
been on other points; however hard they may have found it to 
come together on other grounds, — they are at one here. Sympathy 
has fused their minds into harmony here. Bending together over 
the bleeding body of the Head of the nation, — a body made 
sacred, I may say, without irreverence, by the sacredness of the 
symbols it wore, and the office it represented, — there can be no 
more discord between righteous men. Heart must beat with 
heart, and feeling must melt into feeling, here. In the crucible of 
a common sorrow, a common indignation, a common prostration 
of soul under the mighty hand of God, animosities must dissolve 
and disappear. Righteous men, everywhere, will say it ought 
to be so, — it must be so. And righteous men will thus begin to 
knit again the dissevered threads of national concord and frater- 
nal amity, and unite on the spot where the san6tity and dignity 
of the Government received the stain of the assassin's desecrating 
blow, to build up, in a new fabric of popular virtue and religion, 
the true monument of the country's glory. Such shocks, sending 
such wide-spread and such accordant emotions throughout the 
land, cannot be meant for nothing. They are meant to leaven, 
to impregnate, the whole mass, with a common influence and a 
common inspiration. They are meant to throw thought, feeling, 
temper, — life itself, I may say, in one word, — into a new and 
common channel. 

26 



202 Presidejit Lincoh^s Death. 



Oh ! surely, on this solemn occasion, my friends, I may ask you 
all, if the time has not come, when Ephraim should no longer 
vex Judah, nor Judah Ephraim? Behold to what we have come! 
Behold the horrid apparition which has suddenly started forth 
upon the canvas of our country's history! behold a blood- 
stained monster, reeking with the ferocious passions of the dark 
ages, striding across this Christian, American soil! behold the 
sad chapter which these last few days have added to those public 
annals whose opening pages our fathers' glorious deeds had made 
so bright, — and see to what we have come ! And whither^ by 
these tokens, are we likely to go, if we give ourselves up to 
blindness and infatuation? God has shown us what prodigies 
of wickedness, what enormities in crime, may be generated in 
the heated air of civil strife; and he has shown it to us, — I would 
persuade myself, — that he may constrain us to stop, and yield 
ourselves to his healing monitions. And is it not time? Oh! my 
countrymen — my fellow-Christians — is it not time? Is it not 
time for the minister of God to rush in, with the censor of gospel 
love in his hand, and, standing between the living and the dead, 
plead for the staying of the plague ? Is it not time for all contests 
among us to cease, but those of peacefuj enterprise and honorable 
ambition? Is it not time for all strife to be suspended, but that 
holy form of it in which we shall provoke one another only " to 
love and good works " ? Is it not time that our war- wasted and 
war-shattered land should at last have her sabbath's rest? Is it 
not time that those illustrious shades, — the fathers and sages of 
our country, whose fame is the heritage of us all, — who, during 
these years of fraternal discord, have hovered about the halls of 
the Capitol, with their, heads drooped, and their pale hands veil- 
ing the eyes which would not look out into the atmosphere, dark- 
ened by the smoke of battle-fields, where their children were 
shedding one another's blood, — is it not time, that the tidings 



Rev. yos. B. Siratton, D.D. 203 

of peace and reconciliation should come to throw radiance upon 
those clouded faces, and lift again those drooping heads, and kin- 
dle again the light of hope and joy in those veiled eyes? Is it 
not time, that we, their degenerate offspring, should come to- 
gether, with softened and penitent hearts, to receive the benedic- 
tion which their shadowy arms are stretching out to give us? 
Oh! it seems to me, the righteous man, the righteous woman, 
everywhere, will cry out, " Yes, yes ! as God whom we serve, 
and in whom we trust, and to whom we have been taught to say, 
in every matter, "^ Thy will, not ours, be done,' — as he shall offer 
us peace, we will accept it! His terms shall be our terms! His 
way shall be that which wx will choose! and, in humble depend- 
ence upon his blessing to come with the peace he gives us, we 
will henceforth drop the instruments of war from our hands, and 
drive the spirit of war from our hearts!" 

Oh ! for a vi6tory — a surrender — like this, all over the land ! 
May the Spirit of God achieve it! and follow it with other vic- 
tories and surrenders, until iniquity, in all its forms, and wherever 
it lurks in the corruptions of Government, Church, or people, shall 
disappear before the power of the religion of Jesus; and, on our 
broad territories, shall break the dawning splendor of that long 
day of righteousness, beneath the dome ^f whose benignant sky 
the regenerated earth shall enter into its millennial rest! 

Courier, Natchez, Miss., May 6, 1865. 




THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT: 

A SERMON DELIVERED IN WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, APRIL l6, 1865 ; 

BY REV. ABIEL SILVER. 



John xi. 35: "Jesus wept." 

JESUS wept; and well may man weep. Jesus, who had never 
sinned, wept at the tomb of poor Lazarus. Yes, a human 
nature like ours, moved to compassion by the merciful Spirit of 
God, could weep. The sj^mpathies of the assumed humanity, in 
their connexion with the divine love of our heavenly Father, 
could feel for the distresses of mankind. That assumed finite na- 
ture was so filled with the Father's tender mercies as to weep 
with the sorrowing sister of Lazarus, and the weeping Jews who 
were present. • 

This a6t of the Lord is a high and holy example for us to fol- 
low in tender emotions for the afflicted. And what heart that is 
worthy a home in our beloved country cannot join with the mul- 
titude in mingling his sorrows and tears with the general flood on 
the* present mournful occasion? 

This day a nation weeps.. This day has been set apart by our 
Government, in order that all the people of the United States 
who love the country and its free institutions, — all who are loyal 
to the Government, and rejoice at the downfall of the rebellion, — 
all who appreciate the noble, self-sacrificing, and patriotic ser- 



Rev. A biel Silver. 205 



vices of our late beloved President, may meet to express their 
united sorrow for his departure; their sympathy with the bereaved 
family, with the Government, and with one another; and to mingle 
their prayers in a united offering to our heavenly Father, for the 
continuance of his merciful providence over us as a nation, and 
for the final restoration of order and peace to our bleeding coun- 
try, in accordance with the divine will and wisdom, and for the 
best good of the people. 

About eighteen hundred and thirty-two years ago last Friday, 
the body of our Lord, which he assumed in this world, was cru- 
cified by the very people whom he had come to bless and save. 
It was put to death by wicked hands, which were cruelly raised 
against their best friend. And the anniversary of that appalling 
event has since been kept by the Christian Church as a day of 
humiliation, fasting, and prayer. On last Friday, April 14, 1865, 
the body of Abraham Lincoln, the kind and forgiving President 
of the United States, was put to death by the vile hands of a foul 
assassin, who took the life of the best friend which such traitors 
to our country had, or could reasonably expe(5t to have, in this 
world. And long will that day be remembered, and its anniver- 
sary be noted, as the day when the good President died a martyr 
to the pure principles of justice, and the best rights of humanity. 

Last Saturday, which is called Holy Saturday^ because it is 
the -anniversary of the day when the Lord was in the sepulchre, 
was also the day when Mr. Lincoln lay entombed in the appar- 
ently dead body before his resurre6lion. And a most gloomy 
day it was. Who that witnessed it in this country can forget 
the morning of April 15, 1865, as the startling intelligence passed 
from mind to mind. How the hearts of men sank within them, 
as the faltering voice and tearful eye declared the sad event! 
And how soon the trembling hands and sorrowing hearts spon- 
taneously expressed their grief, by draping their residences and 



2o6 The Death of the President. 

the flag of their country in the deepest mourning! And, to add 
to the gloom, the sun himself seemed to withhold his shining. 
Clouds overshadowed the earth; and Nature herself wept, ming- 
ling her tears with those of the people. 

Thus passed last Satuxda3\ But, on Sunday morning, the 
natural scenery was changed. The sun rose clear and bright, 
removing some of the gloom from material things, and casting 
his hopeful beams upon the habiliments of mourning. This 
bright Sunday was the anniversary of the day when our Lord 
arose from the sepulchre, surprising and making glad the hearts 
of his disciples. And last Sunda}' was, no doubt, the day when 
INIr. Lincoln rose from the tomb of the body into the spiritual 
world. Thus he has passed through the valley of the shadow of 
death unhurt. He experienced no pain in the exchange of worlds. 
It is not probable that he was conscious of being hurt, or that he 
knew that his body was desti-oyed until after he had left it. 
Shocking, therefore, as the event was, it is a consolation to know 
that he had none of the pains and struggles of a lingering or con- 
vulsive death; and that he is now in the bright and cheerful 
world, in a substantial spiritual body, with all his kind affe6tions, 
memory, and knowledge; that all who have loved him for his 
good, honest, patriotic, and benevolent qualities can love him 
still; that he is not lost to us: our hearts and minds can follow 
him home. Those of good hearts, who familiarly knew him and 
loved him, are not separated from him, by means of his putting 
off the body. 

All minds imbued with good and ti-ue principles are, to the 
extent of those principles, united to one another, particularly if 
they are acquainted, and love the good qualities of one another. 
And, when one of them puts ofl:' the natural body, it does not de- 
sti-ov that spiritual union, nor the influence which they may have 
upon each other. The nation, therefore, has not lost Mr. Lincoln, 



Rev. Abiel Silver. « 207 



nor all his salutary influence in the matters of justice and right- 
eousness. Mind can flow into and affe6l mind. But his influence 
will now be a silent one; and those affe6ted by him will probably 
not be at all conscious that their thoughts are any other than en- 
tirely their own, though they may be conscious that they are 
changing their views and feelings somewhat. 

But the great powers and responsibilities of the Chief Magis- 
trate of the nation are now removed from Mr. Lincoln, and are 
placed upon Mr. Johnson. And, so far as their peculiarities of 
mind differ as to measures and policy, so far their administrations 
will be unlike. But, in view of the operations of the divine Pro- 
vidence, we cannot suppose that this change of presidents will 
prove detrimental to the people or the countr}^ Nobly has Mr. 
Lincoln managed the Ship of State upon the stormy billows of 
rebellion's raging sea for the last four years; and joyously did he 
see the fury of the storm subsiding, and the way opening for 
peace. Steadily has the hand of Providence led him, step by 
step, in a way to break the shackles of slavery, and subdue the 
rebellion. This having, with great prudence and kind forbear- 
ance, been accomplished, a wise Providence has permitted him to 
be removed, and another man to take the helm. For, as the 
winds and waves of rebellion subside, other storms will arise as 
the ship enters upon the sea of reconstru6tion, — storms which 
may require a very different captain, in order to bring her safely 
into the sure haven of permanent union and peace. 

The direct providence of God has not removed Mr. Lincoln. 
The assassination was a dire6t violation of God's law. God, 
therefore, did not order it, nor require it at the hands of the 
wretch. But as murder was in the heart of the villain, God per- 
mitted him to execute it against the divine law, because he saw 
through all the events of the future, whether Mr. Lincoln should 
remain or depart. 'It is, therefore, undoubtedly for the best, that 



2o8 The Death of the President. 

there be a change of chief magistrates. For, had it not been so, 
the murder would not have been permitted by the Lord. 

For thouofh it was in the heart of the assassin to kill the Presi- 
dent, -yet the Lord could have prevented it. Not by changing 
the heart of the assassin, — for that could be done only by repent- 
ance, in which the assassin must exercise his own freedom; and 
that repentance he was not in a state to exercise. But the Lord 
could have withheld from him the power or strength to commit 
the deed; for our life, and power to a6l, either right or wrong, are 
constantly given us, and we are free to do which we please. So 
that God's withholding the physical ability to commit the deed 
would not have changed the disposition of the murderer. 

While, therefore, the assassin must suffer the penalty due to 
his crime, for he was free to do it or not, yet we must remember, 
that the merciful Lord permitted no injury whatever to be done 
to Mr. Lincoln. He had finished his work on earth, and has 
gone home. He is better off than he would be here. He cannot 
desire to come back. It is indeed a gain to him. The assassin, 
is the only real sufferer. The famil}^ of Mr. Lincoln, in their 
natural feelings, suffer; but it may prove a real blessing even to 
them, by uniting them more closely with the spiritual world, and 
enabling and disposing them the better to prepare for it. It may 
be the very thing they most need. God knows what is best for 
us, and he always has eternal ends in view. 

In all this view, how conspicuous is the mercy and goodness 
of our heavenly Father, who can thus bring good out of evil, and 
make the wrath of man to praise him! 

Yet the murderer should be arrested, and put to death, be- 
cause he is not fit to live among men in this world. He is an 
injury to all minds with whom he comes in conta6l. And it 
would be good for him to be removed into the other world, where 
he will be governed by the divine law, and suffer no more than 



Rev. Abiel Silver. 209 



the just penalty due to his sins. And that he must suffer, not by 
arbitrary infli6lion, but by a universal law of God. For all suffer- 
ing in the Spiritual world is the just consequence of the state of 
the sufferers' hearts; and their sufferings restrain them from de- 
'scending into deeper evils, and are therefore mercies. 

While, therefore, it is no injury to those who are guilty of 
crimes deserving capital punishment to infli6t it, yet it greatly 
promotes the order, peace, and safety of society on earth to re- 
move such persons to the spiritual world. 

The work of these assassins has opened a new view of the 
rebellion's character, and brought it before us in a new aspect. 
It has aroused the people to new action, and prompted a new 
spirit of investigation; and all this was, no doubt, necessary, in 
order to know more of the qualities of men, that we might be the 
better prepared to properly settle the difficulties which are before 
us, so as to avoid future troubles. 

The real weeping, then, which our text calls for, is for the 
depravity of the nation, and the dreadful crimes which many are 
committing, and have committed, and the awful consequences 
which follow. 

True, we weep for the loss of Mr. Lincoln from among us in 
the flesh. His kind voice is heard no more, and there is appar- 
ently a great blank in the nation, and we weep with the afiii6led 
family. All this is natural; and it is good for us to give vent to 
our natural sympathies, and "weep with those who weep." But 
when, in the spiritual light of the Word, we rise above the sen- 
sational sphere of the natural man, into the sphere of the angels, 
■w''e weep only over the depravity, the evils, and the consequent 
suffering, of fallen humanity; and we pray for a better state of 
things. It is for these evils that the angels weep and pray. And 
while we pity the hardened culprit, and would be glad to see him 
returning penitent to his God, yet for such conscience-seared 

27 



2IO The Death of the President, 

^^Tetches there is but little hope of improvement: and it is our 
duty to bring them to justice, and put an end to their infernal 
career on earth. 

Seeintj, then, the condition of our country, and the work that is 
before us under the new state of things; feeling assured that the' 
heavenly Father has not permitted our late beloved Chief Magis- 
trate to be thus suddenly removed from this world but for some 
t^eat end, — let us all look well to it that we may know and do 
our dutv to our country, by leaning upon and following the. lead- 
ings of divine Providence in dete»5ting criminals, and punishing 
offenders who cannot be brought to repentance. 

Thus let us labor and pray for the restoration of the Union, by 
a union of minds upon the great principles of justice and right- 
eousness, universally extended to the protection and improvement 
of all the people : that the sentiments expressed in the glorious 
flasT of our countrv may fill the heart of every citizen, and go forth 
in praises from every mouth. 

It is meet and proper, on this occasion, thus to inquire what 
the event means, and why it has been permitted. And to this 
subie6t the vast mind of the nation is this day emphatically called. 
And mav God in his infinite justice and mercy enable us as a peo- 
ple calmlv to contemplate, and clearly to see, the duties that are 
before us, that we may be neither too severe nor too lax in the 
execution of the law ; that justice and mercy may blend together, 
and rii^hteousness and peace may become the eternal fruits of the 
tree of liberty I 

Such are the thoughts which the occasion naturally suggests ; 
and though we are in the solemnities of a funeral, at which the 
nation weeps, draped in the habiliments of sorrow, yet it is right 
to seek wisdom even in the midst of tears. 

We can do the departed no good. His merciful and generous 
soul has gone behind the curtain of time, to the enjoyments and 



Rev. Abiel Silver. 211 



uses of a higher life; while we are left behind, with solemn and 
important duties yet to do in this world. And the event calls 
upon us loudly to do them. 

In him we have the example of noble patriotism, of self-sacri- 
ficing devotion to the Union, of tender sympathy for suffering 
humanity everywhere, and of impartial regard for the just rights 
of every individual. Yes, in him we have these heavenly quali- 
ties, worthy of all imitation. May we so follow them as to be 
able to meet him in the world to come I 



Nevj-Jerusalem Messenger, N. T., April 29, 1865. 




EASTER SUNDAY: 

A DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, LOUISVILLE, KY., 
ON SUNDAY, APRIL 1 6, 1S65 ; 

BY REV. J. J. TALBOTT, RECTOR. 



IT was matter of the deepest regret, that the most solemn Fast 
of the Church should have been a day of public rejoicing; and 
it is equally matter of regret, that nov^ the most joyous Feast of 
the Church should be a day of public mourning. 

The unvarying custom of the Church, the suggestions of the 
lessons, and, indeed, the entire spirit of the service for this day, 
require that the subje6t of our Lord's resurrection shall be the 
topic of discourse, and the subje6l of our meditations. But while 
the Church stands forth in her highest festival, sings her most 
exultant songs, and wears the badge of her highest rejoicing, an 
event transpires which seems to hush the paean on her lips, and 
change her jubilate to her miserere. 

A terrible calamity has befallen the nation; and the strongest 
heart stands still, appalled and stricken in the presence of this 
overwhelming visitation. The ordinary course of things will not 
satisfy. The theme, which else had possessed for your ears a 
charming interest, is now utterly powerless to excite your atten- 
tion, or call off your thoughts from the all-engrossing subjeft. 
There is a weight on the public heart. There is that undefined 



Rev. y. y. Talbott. 213 



feeling, which is half dread of the future, half regret for the past. 
Every man feels as if some terrible storm was gathering, some 
calamity impending; and no man knows what to do, or where to 
look for refuge and safety. 

The telegraph brings the startling Intelligence that the Presi- 
dent is dead^ dead ! and by the hands of an assassin; and the first 
officer of the Government lies stricken in his bed, weak and 
helpless from his recent wounds. Had they died, or had thrice 
the number of our great men died, by some visitation of God, it 
had not cast such a gloom over the land ; but that the very Head 
of the nation, the man upon whom all eyes were turned, should 
perish as he has, at the time that he has, is something so awful to 
contemplate, that it is no marvel that men stand aghast in very 
impotence, stunned and shocked as if smitten by a thunderbolt 
from heaven. Just at this auspicious hour, when a vision of 
peace was haunting our troubled dreams; when, on war's horrid 
front, a white-winged angel uplifted his banner between contend- 
ing hosts, and waved back with either wing the tide of death and 
slaughter, — oh, it is sad, that an assassin's arm should mar it, that 
all this blgssed prospe6t should be dimmed and soiled with blood! 
— just when all eyes were turned to him, and the nation held its 
breath, waiting to hear from his lips, words which would be 
equivalent to all end of war and the dawn of peace; just when, 
North and South, all over the land, the cry of a devoted, stricken 
people, scourged, chastened and afflicted, came pouring into his 
ears; just when he was bending to listen, — just then, alas! 
his ear can hear no more, his lips are mute, and can give no 
cheering answer. 

In the presence of this fearful fa6t; with this stupor, chaining 
our thoughts and a6lions, upon us; overwhelmed with ultimate 
hope and fear and dread, — what are we to do } One thing we 
are to do, if nothing else: we are to lay our hands upon our 



2 14 Easter Sunday. 



mouths, and our mouths in the dust, and for the nation, and for 
ourselves, we are to cry, Unclean, unclean! 

Never before in the history of the nation was there a time 
when, more than now, the spirit of moderation should rule in our 
hearts, di6late the words of our lips, and guide and conduct 
our actions. 

In the first tidings of such an event as this, if we do not lay a 
heavy hand upon our hearts, and crush back whatever wrong 
emotion may swell within us, just so surely will we, by the ter- 
rible influence of uncontrolled passion, rush into sin. Hasty, 
impetuous, inconsiderate words will burn upon our lips, and 
feuds will be started which generations may not heal. Crimina- 
tion will do no good. It will not benefit the dead, and will only 
harm the living. Let us learn from his pale lips, dead, what they 
would have taught us living, — calmness and moderation. The 
bitterest accusation cannot restore the dead. He is gone, and 
nothing is left but the deathless memory of his deeds. He can- 
not hear our flatteries: he is unmindful, if we traduce him. He 
is beyond the reach of human praise, outside the pale of human 
censure. His high destiny is ended, his mission accomplished; 
and, whether for weal or woe, his name and influence will abide 
with this nation for ever. 

I am here speaking of this gi'eat man, not to praise or to 
blame; to lay neither eulogy nor obloquy, neither flowers nor 
thorns, upon his coffin. This is neither the time nor the place for 
this. But, while you gather around his grave, I would have you 
still the storm within you, and bid all bitterness, and ever}^ thought 
of vengeance, go hide in his grave. I tell you, the highest, 
noblest tribute you can pay to his memory is to forget how he 
died, in the fa6t that he is dead. For, if he be the man we have 
been told he was; if he was actuated by the simple purpose of 
his country's good, — then he would have died, willingly died, if, 



Rev, J. y. Talbott. 215 



as he went to his grave, he could have taken from the hearts of 
the American people the malice and anger and bitterness and 
vengeance v^hich are there, and left, in their place, calmness and 
the spirit of brotherly love and forbearance, the spirit of modera- 
tion and forgiveness. 

Do not, then, let his death increase this evil. Rather let it 
sound a truce to the long, dark reign of these evil passions; and 
let the form of the dead President be the commanding presence 
which shall banish them for ever. While you give your tears to 
the dead, do not learn the more to hate the living. Remember 
your country. I appeal from the murdered President to the 
bleeding land; and, while you pay your duteous honors to the one, 
do not forget your duty to the other. Be calm; dispassionately 
consider all things; and, whatever conclusion you may reach, 
strengthen it by moderation. Do not discuss this sorrowful 
theme in hasty, angry sentences. Be silent, until reason resumes 
her sway, and you are free from the excitement and bias of this 
first intelligence. 

I should not depart from my unvarying custom to introduce 
this matter here, but that I love you, and would save you from the 
violence of your own feelings. I am here unimpassioned, what- 
ever I may be elsewhere, without feeling or purpose, save to try 
and keep out of your hearts the bitterness which this event is so 
calculated to excite. Only reflect that it can do no good, and it 
must do much harm. And, no matter how your execrations may 
follow the assassin into the dens and caves of the earth, do not 
let them go beyond him. Let this be their limit. Let human 
justice be done, and then leave him with his God. " Vengeance 
is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." 

When the Saviour of sinners, from the sacred Olivet, ascended 
to heaven, he spread forth his hands, and this is his benison upon 
us : " Peace I leave with you : my peace I give unto you ! " The 



2i6 Easter Sunday. 



last words, and doubtless the last thoughts, of the President were 
of peace. God Almighty grant that the blessing he shall leave 
behind him, as his enduring monument, as his deathless glory, 
shall be peace to this war-worn nation! If this shall be the fruit 
of his labors, the priceless value of his life, then o'er his grave 
will shine a light more glorious than the grandeur of empire, 
or the pomp of power, — the splendor of his country's power 
refle6led upon his tomb. 

Brethren, if you loved the dead; if you still love the living; if 
you love our country, the land of your birth; if you love and long 
for the time when Peace shall spread her white wings over us, 
and under them a united people shall sing the songs of a better 
day, and mingle in fellowship and brotherly love, — then let the 
thoughts of your hearts be buried with the dead, and the spirit of 
calm moderation and kindness guide and control you in this try- 
ing hour. Let the memory of your own dead come from the 
waste of years, and soften your roused hearts, and subdue your 
complaining spirits. Go, ask of the dark day which marked the 
committal of your kindred dust unto dust, and ashes to ashes, 
what was the lesson of death ! When . we stand by the open 
grave, it is no time to stir up the resentment of your hearts. 

I bid you remember, that through the grave lies the journey 
to that God who claims vengeance as his own, and bids you 
avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. Let 
this impress you. I bid you remember, that through the grave 
lies the journey to that bar at which you and I must stand, beg- 
ging that vengeance may be stayed, and that mercy may uplift 
her aegis, and shield us from justice. Oh ! then, standing by the 
grave of the great and noble dead, remember that coming hour, 
and be taught its lesson. 

Come to the table of the blessed Lamb. In the high agony 
of the cross, he prayed a blessing upon his murderers! His 



Rev. J. 7. Talbott. 



217 



blood is the reconciliation. Here is the emblem of the greatest 
suffering and the greatest wrongs, borne with the highest possi- 
ble patience, and best conceivable meekness and spirit. Come, 
then, eat this food, drink this blood. It will strengthen you to 
put under your feet this temptation to sin, and make you more 
than conquerors in the sublime vidory of faith over self 

Daily Union Press, Louisville, Ky., April 19, 1865. 




28 



NATIONAL HUMILIATION: 

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE LATE FAST DAY, JUNE I, 1 865, AT THE 
CHURCH OF THE ATONEMENT, PHILADELPHIA, PA. ; 

BY REV. BENJAMIN WATSON, D.D., RECTOR. 



2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4: "The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that 
ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light 
of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning v^^ithout clouds ; as the tender 
grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain." 

IT is befitting that we should meet together this day. Amidst 
the sublime and terrible events of the day, — events terrible 
in their sublimity, and sublime in their terribleness, — it is meet 
that we should stand with uncovered heads, and look up to that 
heaven where He dwells who sits upon the throne, and judges 
righteously. It is meet that, turning from all the accidents and 
phenomena of events, we should recognize and contemplate that 
Hand which shapeth all things according to its will, and holds in 
its control the destinies of nations and of men. It is meet that 
there should be a day consecrated for us — and which will be 
memorable through all coming time — to the outpouring of a na- 
tion's sorrow; to the commemoration of the virtues of him for 
whom we mourn, and to lay to heart the lessons which Supreme 
Wisdom and Righteousness is teaching us by his dealings. 

Ours are no affe6ted tears of grief The stroke that fell upon 
us only a few weeks ago is still too fresh in its smart to allow 



Rev. Benjamin Watson^ D.D. 219 

this day of public mourning to be either formal or heartless. If, 
for a moment, it subsides amidst the busy and crowding scenes 
of the present, we have but to touch the chords of our hearts with 
that sacred and venerable name — the name of Abraham Lincoln 
— to make them vibrate through all our frames, and awaken anew 
the sorrow and terror which crushed us all, when the sad intelli- 
gence flashed upon us, that he who bore it, our high and illustri- 
ous Chief, was dead. 

Gather we then again to-day, as it were, around his bier. We 
surround ourselves afresh with the signs of woe which then over- 
spread the land. We hear once more the voice of wailing and 
lamentation; and behold the mourners as they go about the 
streets, and bear his body to its burial. 

The grave has indeed closed upon him; but he is buried, not 
alone in the bosom of the earth, but in the bosoms of the people 
that he ruled; and there they will ever bring fresh flowers to 
adorn his tomb, — the flowers of afle6tion, and of loving sorrow 
that he is no more. He is gone from among us; the judgment of 
the Lord, which is " true and righteous altogether," has removed 
him from our sight: but he still lives in the virtues that adorned 
his life; in the works that he has wrought; in the memorial that 
will be raised up (ever, we trust, to remain) ; in the regeneration, 
in part at least, by tKat life and those deeds, of the nation's char- 
after, and in the higher exaltation of its destiny. 

Many heroes have fallen, many great ones have been taken 
from us, but we have never seen — the world has never seen — 
such a day as this; when, in all the homes of a great land, there 
will be felt a mourning " as if for an only son ; " when in all its 
temples one voice will go up, of heartfelt bewailing for the sins 
which made such a judgment necessary, of tearful remembrance 
for the dead, and of grateful thanksgiving that such a life was lent 
us, to do its work, and to shed forth its light. 



2 2 o National Humiliation. 

Is it for the departure of a great statesman that we mourn, and 
make our solemn confessions to Almighty God? Is it that a 
Chief Magistrate of our Republic was cut off in the midst of his 
honors and his work? For these, indeed; but not for these alone. 
Rather, because the friend and father of his people has been slain, 
and left them as bereaved children around his tomb. It was not 
pride in lofty genius that was humbled in that stroke. It was 
not confidence in eminent leadership that was tried by it. But it 
was affection, evoked by all that was generous and wise and pa- 
tient in a life that a nation called its own, and which was conse- 
crated to its welfare. Nothing but wounded affeftion could have 
drawn forth such tears from eyes all unused to weep. A voice 
which comes to us from a foreign land is but the echo of a uni- 
versal one at home, "That man has lived himself wonderfully into 
my heart." The mourning of America for her Chief is only such 
as could be called out by that sublime devotion to his country, 
which we know as patriotism, — a word of whose true use we 
had almost lost sight till he arose ; who, casting away all selfish- 
ness, embarked himself, with all the powers of head and heart 
that God had given him, in his country's cause, for the redemp- 
tion of that high pledge of duty which, before God and men, he 
had pronounced. 

Born in lowliness, and reared amidst the rude blasts of adver- 
sity, this man had just such a training as fitted him for the place 
and the crisis he Was to fill. A more refined life, or one more 
absorbed in intellectual pursuits, might have enervated too much 
a frame upon which such gigantic labors were to be imposed. A 
gentler birth and rearing might have equally unfitted him for that 
peculiar position which he assumed as the people^ s represeritative. 
A previous condition more elevated and commanding might have 
unfitted him for becoming, as he was, the popular mouth-piece ; 
following, rather than leading, sentiment; himself taking shape 



Rev. Benjamin Watson^ D.D. 221 

from, rather than giving shape to, the popular mind and will: but, 
when he had received it, giving it that expression in words which 
is ever the mark of genius ; saying that which all felt, when said, 
they might have said as well as he, but which a common mind 
never could: for his was an intellect, if not of the highest order, 
yet, as we now look back upon it, truly great. See how his 
utterances stand out, stamped with his own pure individuality. 
In all of them, there was nothing re-echoed of other men; nothing 
commonplace; no mere platitudes, conveyed in pompous terms, 
such as too often form the staple of our public deliverances. His 
words went right to the mark, as winged arrows. With him, 
logic was almost an intuition; his thoughts naturally arranging 
themselves with the clearness and compa6lness of a syllogism. 
Just such a mind he had, as, with strong native powers, had grown 
through its own unaided efforts, by self-revolving thought, and by 
the massing within itself of its own strong convictions. We can 
fancy this mind ever educating itself; bringing into form and 
order, and strengthening, what God had given it, or when he plied 
the oar, or swung the axe, or, admitted to the councils of his fel- 
lows, labored for the truth, and by patient effort sought after it till 
he found it. By such training, not so much in books, as through 
patient thought, and deeply wrought conviftion, he reached that 
culture which, through four long years, gave us so much senten- 
tious wisdom and pra6tical truth, and which flowered at length in 
that second Inaugural, which men abroad have styled the finest 
State-paper that w^as ever written, and some of whose sentences 
are worthy to be copied in gold, and emblazoned on every temple 
of liberty, and every house of justice, throughout the world. 

But such a mind as his could never be separated from his 
moral qualities. They helped to make the intellect. One may 
be a great poet, though a bad man. He may be an acute and 
profound philosopher. But he whose intelle6lual greatness lies 



222 National Humiliation. 

mainly in his judgment, in his pra6tical wisdom, and in his per- 
sonal power with men, must have moral qualities of the highest 
order. And so, in the character of this man, we find the calmest 
integrity, the most transparent sincerity, temperance, and right- 
eousness, patience unbounded, the fortitude and gentleness of 
woman. From first to last, in that career which came so con- 
spicuously before the world, there was nothing in which even his 
enemies could say that he was mean or crooked or unjust or 
hard or selfish. And, as these were religion praH^ised, so, in all 
the documents issuing from his pen, we find it expressed ; there 
being hardly one of them in which we do not discern the declara- 
tion of his dependence upon God, and the recognition of his ob- 
ligation to him. We are not surprised, therefore, to learn that he 
was a man of daily prayer and perusal of God's Word; we are 
not surprised to be informed that such convictions had found their 
true centre in the cross of Christ. For four years he stood the 
foremost man in all the nation before the public eye, before the 
eye of the world ; yet in all that time nothing could be found that 
would arraign the conclusion, that he was what " the Rock of 
Israel " so long ago declared a ruler should be, — "just, and ruling 
in the fear of God." Is this the language of mere eulogy.^ It 
seems like it. But you know that it is not. Whatever might 
have been his policy, in which some may have differed from him, 
and even in that the logic of events has brought us to see that 
what we might have thought error was the highest truth, in the 
spirit with which he ruled, we cannot dete6t the slightest flaw; so" 
that to him is justly applicable the praise of Divine Wisdom: 
" He shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, 
even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out 
of the earth by clear shining after rain," — a pure, unbroken light; 
a verdure bright and fresh. If this were the judgment of America 
alone, we might think it partial and overdrawn. But when, even 



Rev. Benjamin Watson^ D.D. 223 



in the great cities of the Old World, men stopped their business, 
and held their breath at his cruel assassination, — and then only 
relieved themselves by the utterance and re-utterance of his dis- 
tinguished merits, asserting that no event in history had called 
forth such deep and genuine feeling, -we may well believe 
that it was so; that in the man that we have lost there was an as- 
semblage of virtues which rarely falls to the lot of rulers, and in 
whose possession immortality is secured. And when Americans 
venture to name him with Washington, - that hitherto unap- 
proachable name to us,-we see the height to which their estima- 
tion of him has reached, a height from which we cannot perceive 
that he will ever descend. Washington, the first in his country 
born • Lincoln, the first in his country new-born, regenerated in a 
purer life, and for a nobler destiny. All that I would say is so 
well, though at times roughly, expressed by one who was afore- 
time his detraaor, whose wit and sarcasm are world-wide in their 
reputation, that I cannot forbear repeating it here: — 

" My shallow judgment I had learnt to rue, 

Noting how to occasion's height he rose ; 
How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true ; 

How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows ; 
How humble, yet how hopeful he could be ; 

How in good fortune and in ill the same : 
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful, he. 

Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame. 
He went about his work — such work as few 

• Ever had laid on head and heart and hand — 
As one who knows where there's a task to do, 

Man's honest will must Heaven's good grace command ; 

Who trusts the strength will with the burden grow ; 

That God makes instruments to work his will. 
If but that will we can arrive to know, 

Nor tamper with the weights of good and ill. 

So he went forth to battle, on the side 

That he felt clear was Liberty's and Right's ; 
As in his pleasant boyhood he had plied 

His warfare with rude Nature's thwarting mights. — 



2 24 Natio7ial Hiimiliation. 



The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil, 

The iron bark that turns the lumberer's axe. 
The rapid that o'erbears the boatman's toil. 

The prairie, hiding the marked wanderer's tracks, 

The ambushed Indian, and the prowling bear, — 
Such were the deeds that helped his youth to train. 

Rough culture : but such trees large fruit may bear. 
If but their stocks be of right girth and grain. 

So he grew up, a destined work to do. 

And lived to do it : four long, suffering years' 
Ill-fate, ill-feeling, ill-report, lived through : 

And then he heard the hisses changed to cheers. 

The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise. 

And took both with the same unwavering mood ; 
Till, as he came on light, from darkling days, 

And seemed to touch the goal from where he stood, 

A felon hand, between the goal and him, 

Reached from behind his back, a trigger prest, — ' 

And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim, 
Those gaunt, long-laboring limbs were laid to rest. 

The words of mercy were upon his lips, 

Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen, 
When this vile murderer brought swift eclipse 

To thoughts of peace on earth, good-will to men. 

The Old World and the New, from sea to se'a. 

Utter one voice of sympathy and shame ! 
Sore heart, so stopped, when it at last beat high ! 

Sad life, cut short just as its triumph came ! 

A deed accursed ! Strokes have been struck before 

By the assassin's hand, whereof men doubt 
If more of honor or disgrace they bore ; 

But thy foul crime, like Cain's, stands darkly out." 

Such a man did God give us in these last days of the Repub- 
lic, reviving in him all the virtues of its earliest. And for what? 
Ay, {or what? Only that he might accomplish that great work 
to which he was called, and which he so successfully finished.'^ 
Was his mission fulfilled, when, his designs for his country all 
secured, he laid down his life, a martyr to truth, to liberty, to 
.duty.'* Great and enduring as were his services; glorious as is 



Rev. Benja7nin Watson^ D.D. 225 

the fame which he earned thereby; entitled, as he is, to the high- 
est homage and deepest affe6lion of the nation, on their account, 
— the record of his high commission runs out still farther, and is 
even now in force and at work. 

There are some men who seem so to stand out from others, in 
the dignit}' of their character, that they become almost unap- 
proachable, and, to that extent, lose their power over us, as 
models and examples. Such an one was St. Paul, in most of the 
features of his chara6ler. Such an one was Washington, who, 
whether in his own proper life, or in that halo which distance and 
history have thrown around it, seems raised upon a pedestal, 
rather for the veneration and admiration of his countrymen, than 
for their imitation. His is a hallowed name, placed high — the 
highest for us, and perhaps for the world — on the list of heroes, 
there ever to remain as the impersonation of all that was pure 
and great and good in the patriot and the ruler. But not so with 
this latest of departed heroes. No majestic form or dignified 
mien removed him from familiar intercourse with his fellows. 
To the humblest citizen, even to the child, he was approachable. 
And so with his virtues and his greatness. They were so set 
round with the common traits of man, so intermingled with 
homely speech and proverb, that all felt he was a man like them- 
selves, not one whit removed from or above them, save as his 
office and his chara6ler lifted him up perforce. There seemed to 
be nothing about him in all those merits which were his pecu- 
liarly, that all could not imitate, and follow in his steps. Almost 
alone of distinguished men, this was his. Not grave and re- 
served, as were Washington and Washington's great prototype, 
William of Orange, who, like our martyred President, fell the 
victim of an assassin's rage; not lordly and commanding in his 
bearing, as was Wellington, — but a simple man among men, telling 
them his thoughts in familiar speech; mingling freely with them; 

29 



2 26 National Humiliation. 



trusting them, and knowing them as the source of power, and not 
deeming himself the obje6l of regard, other than that to which 
his high office entitled him. Such a man, and such a ruler, there- 
fore, was eminently fitted for a pattern, at once an example and 
an encouragement for others. And this; apart from the great 
services which he rendered his country, is, I take it, the mission 
of his life for all coming time. And for this, God allowed that 
tragic end to be his fate; by it sealing up in one moment his 
career, shining then in its full meridian glory, and in it embalming 
his memory beyond the reach of corruption or decay. And so 
he stands, crowned with that glorious apotheosis, a simple man, 
but adorned with every grace that could render a ruler profitable 
to men and approved of God. And he, for generations to come, 
vj^ will be America's type ruler. They that fall short of him will 
so far fall short of her ideal; they that reach him, or resemble 
him, will become the inheritors, in their degree, of his high 
praise. Lordly airs, courtly assumption, royal aping, will be dis- 
gusting, — as they ought to be, in this land of freedom and equal- 
ity, the rising star now more than ever of liberty to the world; 
but faith, truth, justice, meekness, gentleness, generosity, patience, 
integrity, fortitude, — these will be the points that men will look 
for, and, finding, appreciate and applaud. To do the right, for the 
right'' s sake, this was Lincoln's principle; and this will and must 
be the principle ' of his successors, if the}'^ would entitle them- 
selves to the meed of the people's favor, and of an imperishable 
name. Thanks be to God for those inimitable virtues of that 
name which he has inscribed so high on, the scroll of renown! 
virtues, we trust, that from him will descend, in greater or less 
degree, upon all the office-bearers of the land, whether they be 
high or low. And shame to the man, who, clothed with author- 
ity by his country, will hereafter dare to step aside from the 
straight path of uprightness, to follow the crooked devices of a 



Rev. Benjamin Watson, D.D. 227 



selfish and sordid policy! And you, to whom this great legacy 
has been committed, the people of the land, see that you honor 
it, in elevating none to office who do not bear the broad impress 
of a high-minded integrity. Whatever other qualifications they 
may possess, let the want of this eclipse them all, and render 
their possessor ineligible in your eyes. As the arrow, moulded 
upon the arms of Britjiin, is the mark of her ownership, so let 
this virtue be the necessary stamp entitling any man to public 
consideration in free, republican America. 

The experiment has been tried, and has succeeded, of taking 
one fresh from the people to be the ruler of the people. It is not 
altogether new in the history of the world. There was one, 
more than three thousand years ago, of whom it is written, that 
" God took him from the sheepfolds to feed Jacob, his people, 
and Israel, his inheritance ; " and of whom it is added, " So he 
fed them with a faithful and true heart; and ruled them prudently, 
with all his power." The experiment succeeded then as now; 
and the choice was no less divine in the one case than in the 
other, though the manner of it was ditferent. King-craft has 
grown old, and royal lines are running out. Here, in this new 
land, a new type of government is being set up, — in the provi- 
dence of God, as near an approach to self-government as could 
well be tried. The nations of the Old World shook their heads 
in doubt when the foundations of it were laid; and, though it had 
marvellous success, there were still signs of weakness in it that 
gave them hope that it would fail at length. And, as the awful 
notes of disunion went thundering across the ocean, they clapped 
their hands in glee, and cried, "There, there! so would we have 
it: the great Republic is falling to pieces; self-government is a 
failure." And in this thought, and the wish that was father to it, 
we see the secret reason of their sympathy with rebellion, and 
their hearty desire that it should succeed. But God has thwarted 



2 28 National Hiimiliation. 

their wishes. He has thrown his Omnipotence on the side of 
right and of human freedom, and the rebelHon Hes dead at our 
feet. He has said, therefore, to this people, " Yofir cause is mine; 
go on prospering and to prosper." He has said to all the king- 
doms of the earth, " Regard that type, and learn from it. It is 
the necessary outgrowth of that religion which I gave the world 
eighteen hundred years ago, when I made Redemption a common 
heritage for men, and sent forth my Spirit to constitute them all 
my sons." 

But for this new type of government there was needed a new 
type of governor. Hitherto, in our chief magistrates, the people 
have not been represented. They have been mainly from what- 
ever aristocracy we may have had, — of birth, of position, of 
wealth. In this respe6l, we have continued under our Old-World 
origin and education. And I must confess to a feeling of distrust 
when the new regime was to be introduced. But in the grand 
success of Abraham Lincoln, the first President of the Republic, 
elevated from the people, without affluence, without position, 
either social or political, with nothing to commend him but his 
own honest heart and sagacious mind, God has set his seal on the 
experiment; and, though we cannot divine the future, we think 
that it is an experiment which the nation will not fail to repeat, 
and which will not be without its influence upon the minds of 
men through all the Christian nations of the globe. For so it is, 
my brethren, that what we have hitherto dreamed of, and perhaps 
vauntingly predicted, must come true, that this American Republic 
is to exercise a might}' influence upon the destiny of the w^orld. 
We cannot help it. None of those great things which have lately 
transpired were done in a corner. While they were transpiring, 
all eyes were fixed upon us. And now that our great task is ac- 
complished, now that the nation has proved itself equal to its 
most formidable necessity, that gaze will not be withdrawn, but 



Rev. Benjamin Watson, D.D. 229 

will remain to observe and learn whatever we shall teach them of 
the mystery of human elevation, and of the progress of the race. 
Can you weigh, then, the responsibility which rests upon this and 
all coming generations in this favored land? Let every man 
among us resolve that he will a6l w^orthy of his high place as a 
citizen of this Republic, in his own individual chara6ter, and in 
the blessing that he may be to those around him. To spread in- 
telligence and religion, — this has now become the duty of every 
one of us, to that extent which God in his providence has given 
us in trust. Now, more than ever, we should learn' that no man 
liveth unto himself, but that we are all our brother's keeper. 

But let us not forget in our meditations, that this is a day of 
fasting and humiliation. And this implies that we have sins to 
mourn over, in judgment upon which God has taken away him, 
whom the people delighted to honor. Humble yourselves, there- 
fore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may lift you up. Let 
each man repent of his own individual offences, and deplore 
the wickedness that, alas! abounds in our midst. Let him, in the 
spirit of deep humiliation, pray for our rulers, that they may be 
men after God's own heart j for our people, that they may be es- 
tablished in righteousness; for the noble army that has fought our 
battles, and won our victories, that, now that they are disbanding 
and returning to their homes, they ma}' still be citizens in whom 
we will delight, and, by their civic virtues, as by their martial 
prowess, become the bulwark of the nation. Let us pray that 
the benevolence of the nation may flow forth to those who return 
stricken and wounded; that they may not suffer through those 
misfortunes which, in our cause, they have incurred. In the 
words with which that noble paper, to which we have already 
referred, concludes, " Let us strive to bind up the nation's 
wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for 
his widow and his orphans; to do all which may achieve and 



230 National Humiliation. 

cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all 
nations." 

The thoughts of this day and this hour will inevitably fade 
away. It is the fate of all things earthy. But let it not be so 
v^ith the truths that it teaches, and the impressions that it has 
made. Let them remain, to be the guiding stars of our national 
course, and the inward forces by which it is impelled on to its 
highest destiny! 

And, resting our thoughts once more on him who has gone, 
we may well say, — 

" O God ! we thank thee that, when needed most, 
Thou raisedst this priest, this leader, for our aid, — 
This model statesman, patriot, martyr, man. 
The sum of all we honor and revere. 
God-given ! God-recalled ! Go to thy grave 
Hallowed by tears, the purest ever shed ; 
A nation's sobs anfl tears thy funeral hymn ; 
A nation's heart thy mausoleum grand ; 
A nation's gratitude thy deathless fame ; 
A 7iation saved thy labor's vast reward." 

Daily Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, Pa., June 7, 1865. 




EULOGIES, SPEECHES, AND LETTERS. 




SPEECH OF MAJOR-GENERAL N. P. BANKS; 

AT NEW ORLEANS, LA., APRIL 21, 1865. 



MR. President and Fellow- citizens, — It Is only since 
my arrival upon this platform that I have been informed 
of the part I am expe6led to take in the ceremonies of this 
occasion, and could vs^ish for longer preparation, with the view 
of doing more perfeft justice to the subject of the hour; but, in 
accordance with the wishes of your committee, I will proceed. 
God knows why it is, or how it is, or for what purpose it is, that 
we have been summoned here; but now, indeed, can we feel the 
nothingness of man, and that it is best for us to bow in sup- 
plication to God for his counsel and support. The language of 
the hour is that, not of comment, not of condolence, not of con- 
solation, but of supplication; and we should stand before the 
throne of God to-da}^, in sackcloth and in ashes, in silent petition 
to him for that counsel and support. 

Human plans are failures: the ideas and purposes of God 
alone are successful. This very week was spontaneously and 
unanimously set apart by the American people as a season for 
thanksgiving and joy, for the great relief which the people had 
experienced from a terrible war, which had bereft nearly every 
family in the North and South of its dearest, and draped nearly 
every family altar as is now draped the national altar. Suddenly 

30 



234 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

the skies were brightened, and universal peace was accepted by 
the nation as the reward of the terrible struggle in which we had 
been engaged. The opening of the Mississippi; the brilliant 
vi6tories of the Army of the Cumberland in 1863; the fall of the 
rebel cities upon the Atlantic coast before the triumphant march of 
Sherman; the surrender of Lee to Grant; and the occupation 
of Mobile by the gallant chieftain who is here in our presence 
to-day, not waiting for the intelligence that the last army of the 
rebellion had surrendered to the glorious Sherman, — all justified 
the assumption that God had given this nation permanent, lasting, 
honorable, and glorious peace ! But while we were preparing for 
the announcement by the officers of the Government, — always 
behind, in instin6ts and purposes of power, the people of the gov- 
ernment, — unexpe6tedly, in the twinkling of an eye, as if with 
the suddenness, strength, and power of God, — all of us lay low 
in sorrow, mourning and despair. I believe that never before in 
human history were a people so horrified as by the announce- 
ment of the death of the President, and the fall of his great 
assistant in council and action, — the Secretary of State. We 
know not why it is, but we have the great consolation to say that 
we believe it is for good to our nation. Ay,^ for good to the 
man that has fallen as our representative. He had committed 
no crimes. There is not a man on the continent or globe that 
will or can say that Abraham Lincoln was his enemy, or that he 
deserved punishment or death for his individual a6ts. No, Mr. 
President, it was because he represented us that he died; and it 
is for our good, and the glory of our nation, that God, in his 
inscrutable providence, has been pleased to do this, while, for the 
late President, it is the great crowning a6l and security of his 
career. To die is " to go home," — to go to our Father, and be 
relieved from sorrow, care, suffering, labor, and from danger; but 
to live, — ay, sir, to live is the great punishment infli(5ted upon 



Major-Geiteral N. p. Banks. 235 

man. All that we can ask is to go when all things are ready, — 
when duty is discharged, strength exhausted, and the triumph 
effected, — then it is our joy to go home to " Our Father." As 
has been beautifully said, sir, — 

" When faith is strong, and conscience clear, 
And words of peace the spirit cheer, 
And visioned glories then appear, 
'Tis joy — 'tis triumph, then, to die! " 

God has given our great leader the privilege to go, under cir- 
cumstances like this. He had lived his time, fought his fight, 
and, God be thanked ! had kept the faith. Let me say it reverently, 
that for Abraham Lincoln to live was for Abraham Lincoln to 
fall! He had ascended to the highest point, — the highest culmi- 
nation of human destiny; to be better and greater and purer, 
he must leave us, and go to the bosom of God. He is enjoying 
the highest culmination of glory that God has given, in his wise 
and mysterious dispensation for the human family. 

Sir, I had seen him but little, but that which I had seen, 
stamped upon my heart the indelible feeling that he was a rare 
man, — not a great or a successful man: many of both kinds have I 
seen; but he was a rare man, who believed in the power of ideas, 
and knew that huipan agencies were unable to control or dire6l 
them. In the dispensation of what men call " power," I have 
seen Mr. Lincoln give it to the right and left as if of no conse- 
quence at all ; and, when reproached for so doing, I have heard 
him say, "What harm did this generous confidence in men do 
me?" I have seen, amidst the hours of trial^ his manifestations 
of patience and confidence, more almost than human; until I had 
come to believe that that which is designed to be done would be 
accomplished, if not by human power, at least by the concurrent 
a6lion and support and will of God. 

Though taken from us, his influence is still here; and there is 



236 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 

not a man in this assembly to-day, who is not more impressed 
with his spirit and purpose than he would be if Abraham Lincoln 
were living at this hour; nor is there a man here to-day, who is 
not a disciple of him, and the agent of his works, for evermore. 
We may, indeed, be assured that his great purpose — the Union, 
first of all — will be carried out. We might as well expert the 
Mississippi to turn back, at its mouth, and seek again the moun- 
tain rivulets and springs, as to believe that human power is to 
sunder the States of the Union. Abraham Lincoln's v^isdom and 
patriotism has led us as far as human effort can bring us; and now 
his blood cements for ever the holy Union of the States. 

You know, fellow-citizens, how deeply he was interested in 
the destinies of Louisiana. No friend in your midst ever thought 
so much about or wished so much for your good as the late Pres- 
ident of the United States ; and it was among the first wishes of 
his heart, that the prosperity of its people, the liberty of all its 
races, and their elevation, should be perfe6ted during his adminis- 
tration : or, as he said in one of his letters to me, " My word is 
out for these things, and I don't intend to turn back from it." It 
is not for me to a6l or speak in the spirit of prophecy, but I can 
say to you, that I believe his wish will be consummated by the 
return of Louisiana to the Union, by the h/Dnor, freedom, and 
elevation of all classes of its people. 

'To the colored people of this assembly and State, as well as 
the Union, I can say, that the work in which he was engaged will 
go on, and that the day is not far distant when they will enjoy 
the freedom that God and the people have given them, and also be 
advanced to all the privileges that, under the Constitution of our 
country, or that of any other, God has deigned to bestow upon any 
class of people. But they must remember, that they have a work 
to do, and that while God is just to all his people, he requires that 
they shall be just to him. You shall be free, and invested with 



Major-General N. P. Banks. 237 



all the privileges of which men are capable of wise and proper 
exercise, for Abraham Lincoln's word is out. 

It is not my right to suggest a word of counsel or advice for 
the future; but I have the right to say, that there is one man who 
seeks your prayers and desires your counsel. It is he who has 
been recently inaugurated — unexpe6tedly and distrustfully, as 
we are told — President of these United States. Though a 
President has gone, we must sustain the President that remains. 
I look upon the State of Tennessee, from which he comes, as 
being the centre of the great arch of the Union: midway between 
the South and North, with the climate of the one and the other, 
its soil susceptible of producing the products of both sections, it 
calls for- all the consideration that either se6lion of the country can 
demand for its people. Its political chara6ter and structure have 
the same variTety and connexion with the destinies of our country, 
and for thirty years have been more closely contested in political 
struggles than any other State of the Union. Its vote has decided 
many issues, and great men have represented its interests and 
destinies; and it has given us two Presidents, whose administra- 
tions have been identified closely, not only with the existence, 
but with the extension and interest, of our country. Jackson, with 
his mailed arm, struck disunion down at its first appearance, and 
adapted the policy of the country to its need. Polk confirmed 
the policy of Jackson, and extended the boundaries of our happy 
land until it reached from the Atlantic to the Pacific '■coast. 
Among the great men of place, we have had Benton, Houston, 
Bell, Foster, and hundreds of others whose names are known, 
and who have been and are connefted indissolubly with the hap- 
piness and liberty of our people. From amid these men, the new 
President has been called. Among them he has grown, and 
from their teachings has he been instructed. His life has been 
one of activity, energy, and integrity. Chara6ter is not made in 



238 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 

a day; it will never be forfeited in an hour. Our lamented Pres- 
ident, if he could advise us, would counsel us to sustain the 
Government, and those left to take his place; and we are assured 
that the two great officers then at the head of the nation — a few 
days before the departure of the first and greatest — upon full 
consultation, found that they had perfe6lly concurrent views, and 
separated with the confidence that each wished the prosperity 
and success of the other. Let us then accept this day, its grief, 
and the lesson which it imparts, and be more than ever deter- 
mined, in the presence of God, with the ability and power he 
has given us, to do our duty to our country, by maintaining its 
institutions and perpetuating its principles and liberties. 

IVezv- Orleans Times, April 2^,, 1S65. 




FUNERAL ORATION ON THE DEATH OF 
PRESIDENT LINCOLN: 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, AND CITIZENS OF PORTLAND, 

APRIL 19, 1865 ; 
BY REV. J. J. CARRUTHERS, D.D. 



MR. Mayor and Fellow-citizens, — The memorable days 
of our Republic are multiplying with marvellous rapidity; 
and amongst the most memorable of them all will be the four- 
teenth of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, when the hand 
of violence fell fatally on all that was mortal of Abraham Lin- 
coln. The dreadful tragedy — more dreadful than any ever 
represented in the mimicry of the dramatic stage — has sent a 
thrill of unmitigated horror through the land; and anguish, par- 
alleled only by the sorest domestic grief, has filled the hearts 
and households of our nation. The second Father of his country 
— second^ only because he was not the first — has fallen; and, in 
common with many millions of afflicted mourners, we are met to 
pay the last tribute of respeft to the memory of one whose death 
is felt by each of all these millions as a personal bereavement. 
The stroke has fallen unexpectedly and suddenly upon us; but 
suddenly and unexpectedly only because it is not given to us to 
foresee the events and issues even of a single day. Divine benev- 
olence and wisdom have thrown over even the nearest future, a 
curtain so impenetrable, that human sagacity, however trained 



240 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

and tutored by experience, can but conje6ture as to what lies 
behind it. To God himself, nothing is unknown. He " seeth the 
end from the beginning, and from. ancient times the thing that is 
not yet done." Nor must we withhold the closing part of this 
inspired declaration, in which he says, " My counsel shall stand, 
and I will do all my pleasure." Without impairing in the least 
the free agency of man, without mitigating in the least the guilt 
or just desert of human crime, the Sovereign Ruler of the uni- 
verse is ever working out to their designed issues his purposes of 
judgment and of mercy. Abraham Lincoln was " immortal till 
his work was done;" and though his purposes were broken off, 
even the thoughts of his heart, by the hand of the assassin, those 
of the All-wise and the Almighty are undisturbed and undiverted 
even by a catastrophe like this. It was in subserviency to his 
designs, that Abraham Lincoln first saw the light, and was born 
with qualities, phj-sical and mental, which, when matured by 
exercise, observation, and experience, fitted him for the high 
position he ultimately reached, and for the solemn responsibilities 
that ever invest the chief magistracy of this great Republic. He 
who drew the deliverer of Israel from the bulrushes of the Nile, 
and trained him for his destiny in the wilderness of Midian, took 
Abraham Lincoln, in his seventh year, from his birthplace in 
Kentucky, and, till his twentieth, kept him in salutary seclusion 
amidst the then dense forests of Indiana. Here his naturally strong 
and stalwart frame gained daily vigor from the work to which 
penury impelled and honest industry inclined him. Here too 
his mental faculties were developed and disciplined by the study 
of men rather than of books; although of books, he had the best 
in that volume which, beyond all others, yields the most nutritious 
intelle6lual aliment, and has, in all ages, given instrumentally the 
greatest moral heroes to the world. Of these, the Pioneer of 
Indiana was pre-eminently one; and the keen acumen, the unaf- 



Rev, y. y, Carruthers, D.D, 241 

fe6led earnestness, the filial fidelity, the untiring industry, the 
ever unslacked thirst of knowledge, the unimpeached and unim- 
peachable truthfiilness of Abraham Lincoln, were, in no small 
degree, the natural results of early conversance with the lives and 
a<5ls and utterances of patriarchs and prophets and apostles. No 
College claims him as its alumnus. His Alma Mater was fixed 
by Providence amidst the woods and waters of the then far-West. 
His days were spent in hard and ill-remunerating toil, and few 
indeed were the hours that could be spared for what is called 
intelle6lual improvement. But what was wanting in classical 
learning, in philosophical research, in scientific acquisitions, was 
more than counterbalanced by the reflex a6lion of his own 
mind, by the close study of his country's histor}', by the stern 
necessities of a life admitting of no idleness, and by the di6tates 
of a moral dignity that would not stoop to dissipation. In 
another and a higher sense than is usually attached to such an 
epithet, Abraham Lincoln was a learned man. When he moved 
from Indiana to his adopted State of Illinois, he largely knew 
himself He knew, by close and careful study, the chara6ter of 
Washington. He knew the constitutional history of his own 
country, and — best of all — he knew and revered those high 
and holy principles of right and justice which had come to him 
in his forest home, with the seal and stamp of divine authority. 
These principles were incorporated with his mental being, inter- 
woven and blended with his daily thoughts, giving steadiness 
and dire<5lion to the noble ambition that sought eagerly to honor 
and to serve his country. 

True greatness is never unallied with modesty; but modesty 
in him was something else, and something vastly better, than that 
mawkish, mopish shamefacedness, which affe<5ls a sense of inferi- 
ority that is not felt, and creeps and cringes for compliments that 
are not deserved. When summoned by the citizens of Illinois 

31 



242 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

to represent them in their legislature, he accepted the office as 
one to which he was consciously equal, and the responsibilities 
of which he assumed as entirely coincident with his ability and 
inclination. He yielded, with graceful dignity, and just confidence 
in his capacities of counsel and of aftion, to the appointment of 
his fellow-citizens as a member of the convention that nominated 
Zachary Taylor as a candidate for the presidential chair. When 
those citizens accorded him the higher honor of a6ting as their 
representative in Congress, he went as naturally and gracefully 
to his work, as in his boyhood he did his mother's bidding, and 
in his early manhood followed his father to the forest. He took 
his congressional seat as a workman not needing to be ashamed. 
He had no aspirations towards mere oratorical display. For this 
he was not fitted, and he knew it; but, in a way not less if not 
more effeftive, by a6ling on important committees, he served the 
interests of his constituents, and of the country, and justified to 
the full the confidence reposed in him. He did not in mock 
modesty shrink subsequently from contesting with an able senator 
a seat in the higher branch of our national legislature ; although, 
in the well-fought field of friendly emulation, he failed, as any 
man, with even more ability than he as a debater, w^ould, in like 
circurnstances, certainly have done. " The battle," in such cases, 
"is not always to the strong;" and even Illinois was not yet 
prepared for the position he then boldly assumed, and ever after 
resolutely maintained, as the advocate of human rights, and the 
earnest friend of the oppressed. But that memorable and pro- 
longed debate did something towards facilitating the education of 
the people in the science of right doing; and it had the effeft, 
besides, of teaching them that, if they should ever want a man of 
courage, resolution, unswerving honesty, and untiring zeal, to 
navigate the Ship of State • through narrow straits and over 
tempestuous seas, the required helmsman might be found in 
Springfield, Illinois. 



Rev. y. y. Carruthers, D.D. 243 

« 
He was found there. He was intrusted with the mighty 

enterprise, and nobly has he done his duty. Even he, indeed, 
with all his natural sagacity, and acquired knowledge of measures 
and men, but partially imderstood the magnitude of the task he 
undertook; and yet, when this was fully seen, when the whole 
danger and the whole duty opened to his view, this noble man 
shrunk not, quailed not, nor ever once betrayed the slightest 
distrust in the successful issue of the fearful struggle. With a 
depleted treasury; with a fleet insignificantly small, and scattered 
systematically to the ends of the earth; with the army scarcely 
more than nominally such; with treason stalking at mid-day even 
in the capital; with half the States in armed insurrection; 
with disloyal officers, by scores, transferring their allegiance to 
the rebel flag; and with volunteer forces wholly inadequate in 
numbers to meet the domestic foe, — this man of moral might 
stood firm at his post with undiverted eye, with steady hand, and 
with a heart ever confident in God and in the right. 

It would be doing great injustice, however, to his memory, 
did we not record it to his honor, that, from first to last of his 
official career, he never momentarily forgot that he was president 
of a Republic. The one-man power found in him neither advo- 
cacy nor illustration. He rose from amongst the people, and 
ruled by the people's will, and for the people's benefit. He 
skilfully surrounded himself with men of tried and tested patriot- 
ism; and if any one of them, however personally esteemed, proved 
untrue to his prestige or unequal to his post, he was forthwith and 
unceremoniously set aside. He had no petty jealousy of obtru- 
sion, by his chosen and trusted associates, on his prerogatives of 
office, but cheerfully shared with each and all of them the honors 
as well as the duties of the Government. Though, at first, sup- 
posed by some to have too little independence of thought and 
action, and too easily induced to adopt opinions and measures 



244 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 

not wholly accordant with personal conviftions, experience effec- 
tually corrected this erroneous estimate of the noble man, and 
taught all other men that Abraham Lincoln had his own indi- 
vidual conscience, and was guided by it. By slow degrees of 
popular enlightenment, and the surest proofs of adminstrative 
wisdom, it became apparent to the most obtuse observer, that, 
though he was neither the commander nor the creature of his 
Cabinet, he had a will of his own, and would yield it only to 
convi6lion, or to the force of circumstances not to be controlled. 
The plastic ease with which he met the exigencies of each 
occasion as it rose, the bland and genial courtesy which made 
every man approaching him feel perfectly at home, the winning 
smile that came like the sparkling ebullition of a natural fountain 
from the deep recesses of a loving heart, were found by manifold 
experiments to be combined with a courage that no danger could 
intimidate, a constancy which no vicissitude could shake, a confi- 
dence that rested on no precarious or problematic basis, but on 
the solid and immutable principles of truth and justice. From 
these principles, no force of adverse reasoning could remove him, 
and no fulsome adulation could seduce him. Even the wisest of 
his counsellors knew full well from the beginning, and the ene- 
mies of equity learnt to their hearts' content, that Abraham 
Lincoln, in his panoply of honesty, was proof against all attempts 
to gain him over even to a seeming recognition of constru6live 
falsehood, or the practical adoption of a treacherous expedi- 
ency. 

The Constitution of our country, as expounded by the great- 
est jurist of modern times, and as understood by many of the most 
intelligent lovers of their country and mankind, seemed at least to 
admit of such constru6lion as was favorable to a S3'stem of ini- 
quitous oppression. By guarding jealously the rights of States, 
it appeared to place this system, as such, beyond the jurisdi6lion 



Rev. y. y. Carrulhers, D.D. 245 

of the Union, and leave to this, as its only legitimate sphere in 
that direftion, the power of confining within or extending beyond 
actual State organizations, the great crime and grievous curse of 
human bondage. There can be no doubt that Abraham Lincoln 
so interpreted his oath of office, as to feel himself bound, in 
honor and justice, to abstain from influencing by any aft of 
power the legislation or executive a6lion of any of the States 
when seen to be, or seeming to be, stri6tly constitutional. Then 
conscience and Constitution were at variance; but, as he had 
sworn to maintain the latter, conscience demanded a rigid adhe- 
rence to his oath. He did adhere to it; and it was in perfe6l 
accordance with the spirit and terms of that oath, that, when a 
military necessity arose for his intervention, as Commander-in- 
chief, in the way of liberating a portion of the colored people of 
the land, he embraced the providential opportunity, and sent forth 
that glorious proclamation of emancipation which alone would 
have immortalized his name. 

A military necessity was the immediate occasion of that meas- 
ure; but there are other necessities, higher, holier, and still more 
imperative, — necessities to which the demon-power of slavery 
must succumb, — necessities involved in the principles of God's 
word, admonitions interwoven with the instin6ls of humanity, and 
demanding with an authority that calls heaven and earth to wit- 
ness, in these days of civil commotion and convulsion, the 
expulsion of the slaveholding demon from the body politic, and 
an interdict strong, enduring, and irrevocable, against its return. 
That interdift will soon be pronounced by the American people; 
and the imperishable record of the amended Constitution be 
embodied in the epitaph of our late noble President. 

We have said that Abraham Lincoln could not die before his 
work was done. Beautifully symmetrical as were the intellectual 
and moral qualities by which he was distinguished, it is no dis- 



246 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters, 

paragement of the man or of the ruler to say that he could not 
have met, as another may, the solemn responsibilities of the crisis 
at which, as a nation, we have now arrived. That heart of love 
was not to be trusted with the work of dealing with the authors 
and abettors of gigantic treason. Himself so absolutely free from 
guile, he was but ill qualified to look through those disguises by 
which wicked men conceal their deep designs, and, when these 
designs are thwarted, put on an air of ingenious regret, and 
even of injured innocence. That recent visit of our noble Chief 
to Richmond, which many lamented, and not a few feared might 
lead to a catastrophe like that which has filled the land with 
mourning, — that visit, with its immediate and possible results, 
may reconcile us to an event in itself most deplorable and sad, 
but, in its issues, not incompatible with the honor, safety, and 
well-being of the nation. We sympathize most deeply and sin- 
cerely in their affliction with the widow and the orphan sons of 
our great and good Chief Magistrate. We estimate, at its highest 
worth, the homage paid this day, through the whole land, to his 
distinguished virtues; but we will not, even at the tomb of 
Abraham Lincoln, " despair- of the Republic." Despair! The 
very whisper of despair might re-animate that corpse which has 
this day been carried to the tomb, might re-open those meek and 
lustrous eyes, dispart those lips of mildness and decision, and draw 
forth a withering rebuke of the godless unbelief and craven cow- 
ardice that could despair of a Republic such as ours. No man, 
however great, however good, is essential to the welfare of our 
country. He who gave us this great chief can give us, has 
already given us, another, who will meet the responsibilities of a 
trust so suddenly and solemnly imposed upon him. He cannot 
yet divide with his lamented predecessor the love and homage of 
his fellow-citizens; but he is sure to gain them, if the praftical 
pledges of his past life shall be redeemed, and if the incipient 



Rev. y. y. Carrutkers, D.D. 247 

promise of his administration shall be verified by its progressive 
development and prospe6live issues. Let us not, then, dishonor the 
memory of him whom we so sincerely mourn, by questionino- 
the future stability of our institutions; the progress of civilization 
through the entire undivided land; the moral greatness of a nation 
emerging, in athletic vigor, from a furnace that would have con- 
sumed any other; the glorious moral destiny of a people set for 
the defence and the diffusion, through the world, of rational 
liberty, secured by the unfailing guarantees of high intelligence, 
mutual forbearance, and unaffe6led piety. We bid a lono- 
farewell to the man whom we this day honor; we follow, in 
imagination, his remains with the retinue of domestic and public 
mourners to its temporary depository, and thence again to the 
place of final sepulture; but we will not forget, amidst our per- 
sonal sorrow and sympathetic grief, that our nation holds its life 
by a higher tenure than that of frail mortality, and that, whatever 
rulers rise or fall, " In God we trust." 

Maine State Press, Portland, April i"], 1S65. 




EULOGY OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN: 

DELIVERED AT JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA, APRIL I9, 1865 ; 

BY SURGEON R. H. GILBERT, U.S. VOLS., 

SUPERINTENDENT AND MEDICAL DIRECTOR UNITED-STATES ARMY GENERAL HOSPITALS. 



HOW solemn and how eloquent is this occasion! The purest 
man, the noblest patriot, the foremost man of the nation, 
Abraham Lincoln, is dead! 

He in whom were centred the hopes of thirty millions of 
people has been stricken down, and is no more. The nation 
mourns his loss ! From the rocks of the Atlantic to the sands of 
the Pacific, from the great lakes to the gulf, on every sea 
wherever the flag floats, in every land wherever the spirit of 
liberty breathes, grief weighs down the heart, and sorrow fills the 
air. How imperfectly can words express a grief so deep, a sor- 
row so profound! 

Hearts that beat with joyous pride a few days since, for the 
victories which our arms have achieved, now beat heavily with 
grief. Eyes that beamed with joy at the prospe6l of returning 
peace are now dimmed with tears. 

A good and a great man, ripe in wisdom, in the meridian of his 
glory, when he was contemplating how he could best be mag- 
nanimous to those who for four years have been — until compelled 
by our vi6tories to lay them down — in arms against liberty and 



Surgeon R- H. Gilbert. H9 



against union; how he could be magnammous, and yet be true 
tl the great trust confided to him by the people, - true to the best 
interests of the nation, - has been summoned, without a moment s 
warning, to appear before his God, the Ruler of the nations ! 

How few there are of his servants who were better prepared 
to receive that summons, which it pleased God in his unfathom- 
able wisdom to send by the hands of an assassm! 

In the contemplation of this awful and tragic event, it seems as 
if we were rolled back two thousand years to the barbarous ages; 
as if the Star of Bethlehem, the golden fruits of the gospel, the 
civilization and progress of twenty centuries, have been annihi- 
lated. We seem no longer Americans; but to stand agam m the 
forum of Rome, with dead Csesar at our feet. 

While our hearts are saddened with this great sorrow; wh.le 
every feeling of kindness and charity has been outraged by this 
most infamous of wicked deeds, and blackest of human crimes, - 
we have need of all our virtues and calm self-possession to keep 
the feelings of revenge against the perpetrators and sympathizers 
of this horrid tragedy from becoming uppermost in our hearts. 
We have need of all our faith and religion to see beyond the 
black evil, which, like a dark cloud, shrouds the present, and read 
ari<.ht the lessons which God intends it shall teach us. 

Ve have, as a nation, reason, in the midst of our mo"™>"g' ^ 
be devoutly thankful that God in his goodness has withhe d the 
assassin's hand so long. As we stand now we can on^y see 
hydra-headed treason rearing his head in the capita . We can 
only see in this damnable deed, the Devil's black hand. But wait 
a little, we shall see God's back of it. 

Marching along with the armies of the Union, with your pros- 
pea and view shut out by the dust of the march, you have found 
[t difficult, if not impossible, to discern the point of your depar- 
ture, or to correaiy discover your future destination. 

32 



250 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

It Is only when you have gained the height of some command- 
ing eminence that you can review the region over which you 
have journeyed, and see the destination of the long lines of 3'our 
fellow-soldiers, which were wending their way along the valleys 
and through the mountain passes; and so now, walking wearily 
and sorrowfully in the shadow of the great mountain of grief 
which rises before us, with our eyes dimmed with tears for the 
nation's loss, we cannot see what lies beyond. When, through 
toil and suffering, we shall have climbed to the summit of the 
mountain, with wondering eyes, we shall then see stretched out 
before us the valleys of peace; and, far beyond, in the blue sky, 
above the purple hills, the cloud which seems so dark to us now, 
turning to silver beneath the rays of God's transcendent love. 

I have said that in our great sorrow we have, as a nation, rea- 
son to be devoutly thankful to God, that in his goodness he has 
been pleased to withhold the assassin's hand until so much of the 
great work of annihilating this fiendish rebellion has been accom- 
plished. It is too late now for treason's bullet or the assassin's 
dagger to stop the wheels of liberty's engine, to arrest the nation 
in its onward march towards the accomplishment of its glorious 
destiny. Nay: the assassin's dagger will rather hasten it onward 
in the accomplishment of its purpose. It may be the age of 
bullets, but it is also the age of ideas. It will open the eyes 
of those who have been crying "Peace, peace! when there is no 
peace," to the realization that we are fighting to save the life of 
the nation against a barbarism — the child of slavery — which is 
not less, but more to be dreaded that it finds its home in educated 
and cultivated minds. It will strengthen the knees that have 
knocked together or kneeled down at the mention of slavery. It 
will give vigor to hands and arms that have hung paralyzed in its 
presence, and bid them lay hold of the roots of the stump of 
the tree of slavery, that has fallen beneath the giant blows of the 



Surgeon R. H. Gilbert. ' 251 

great man whose loss we deplore, and tear them for ever from 
American soil. 

When in the history of nations has one so illustrious begn 
stricken down from so exalted a position ? When has so true and 
honest a patriot — one so enshrined in the hearts of the people — 
been torn from a nation's heart by a murderous hand? Looking 
back through the ages, to revolutions that have swept over the 
earth, and changed the destinies of the world; searching the his- 
tories of empires that have risen to power and greatness, and 
crumbled to dust, — we shall find none of all the great names of 
those whose lives have been handed down for the admiration 
of posterity, stamped more indelibly upon the age in which they 
lived, or that will live longer in the grateful remembrance of 
future generations. 

His colossal proportions will best be seen in after times by the 
light of history. It is not the dwellers upon the mountain sides 
that fully realize their magnitude; but to those who are farther 
removed from them, they appear in all their sublimity and gran- 
deur. But we, to-day, remembering all his greatness in the past; 
his voice of wisdom, from which all men their omens drew; his 
firm will, true to the times in which he lived; his great goodness 
of heart, his broad humanity, his noble honest}^, and integrity of 
purpose, — can weave no wreath of words to crown his brow, or 
express the universal woe. 

America's leader has fallen! The wail of mourning of a 
mighty nation fills the land. It comes to us from the prairies that 
stretch in airy undulations far away to the North-west, from the 
pioneer's rude hut on the frontier, from the crowded mart of 
every city, from Maine way round to the gulf, from the golden 
gates of California to where Oregon rolls its waters to the sea, 
from every ship that unfurls its white sails and starry flag to the 
breeze. It rises in solemn, sorrowing anthem from the hearts 



252 Eulogies^ Speeches, and Letters. 

of four millions of freedmen, whose chains have fallen by his 
hand, and from the oppressed of every clime. Everywhere the 
friends of liberty weep. 

" Lead out the pageant, sad and slow, 
As fits an universal woe. 
Let the long, long procession go, 
And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow, 
And let the mournful martial music blow, — 
The great American lies low. 

Yea, let all good things await 
Him who cares not to be great, 
But as he saves or serves the State. 

Such was he : his work is done ; 

But, while the races of mankind endure, 

Let his great example stand 

Colossal, seen of every land. 

And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure, 

Till in all lands, and through all human story. 

The path to duty be the path to glory." 

Daily Union Pfess, Louisville, Ky., April 21, 1865. 




SPEECH OF MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT: 

AT NEW ORLEANS, LA., APRIL 21, 1S65. 



FELLOW-CITIZENS, — With all these outward demonstra- 
tions surrounding me; with those flags — the flags of our 
common country — at half-mast; the habiliments of woe, and dra- 
peries that surround the balconies and porches of our fair city; 
the still, steady countenances of this vast assemblage, with the 
burden that every man feels at his heart, — we are assembled here 
this day to express our sorrow for the greatest calamity that has 
ever befallen human progress since the world was. It is well 
that here, in this city- of New Orleans, from the banks of this 
magnificent river, the child of the Union, the creature of that vast 
commerce that sweeps back to the Rocky Mountains on the one 
side, and the Alleghanies on the other, — it is well that you, citizens 
of this city and this State, the spoiled and petted child of this 
Union, should recognize here to-day the obligation and duties 
that fall upon you as citizens of this great Republic, whose head 
and front has been stricken down by the hand of the assassin. It 
is well, too, — as the remarks that have fallen from my friend who 
led us in prayer on this solemn occasion have indicated, — it is 
well for us all to peer deeply down into our hearts; for, since 
the day when unholy men crucified the very Lord of grace, no 
such crime has been perpetrated, or known in the pages of his- 
tory, as this which has brought us here to-day. The parallel 



254 Eu/ogieSj Speeches, and Letters. 

holds good, be it spoken with due reverence ; for the truest and 
best, most thorough and most powerful, friend to the madmen 
who, in their frenzy and fanaticism, have laid him low, was Abra- 
ham Lincoln, late President of these United States. 

Let me then, here, to-day, in the first place, recognize the 
deep detestation and horror which should fill every heart, wher- 
ever it is, under whatever sun, at the atrocity and enormity of the 
horror which has darkened this country with grief. We meet 
here for the purpose of paying some fit and feeble tribute to the 
memory of the great man who has led our country through these 
last four years of agony and sorrow. We meet here as citizens 
of a common Union, as children of the same soil, by birth or by 
voluntary adoption. And it may be there are those here who 
come under neither of these descriptions, but are the denizens of 
these United States, remaining under their national flag, while 
quietly dwelling under the broad prote6lion of our banner; and 
to all of these classes of men this day is momentous. 

I do not propose to speak at length here, and on this occasion, 
of the life and public services of Abraham Lincoln. I dare not 
trust myself with the task. I but little thought, years ago, before 
he was elevated to the presidency of the United States, — be- 
fore war had spread her blood-stained wing over our country, — 
when I used to meet him in the ordinary course of civil life in my 
own adopted State, — rl little thought, that, after four years of ser- 
vice under our flag in suppressing a rebellion, I should stand 
in this central park of New Orleans, in the service of my country, 
to speak words of eulogy upon the death of him, the President of 
these United States. But of the past we are secure. Glory, 
honor, the praise of all good men, have crowned his eventful 
career; and when in the providence of Almight}'' God, to whose 
inscrutable decrees we must all bow, — just as the ruby dawn of 
peace was breaking upon our distracted country; just as the 



Major- General Hurlbut. 255 

arms of the Confederacy, fairly beaten, were being laid down; 
just when that gentle heart, that true, affe6tionate, honest man, 
seemed most required to throw the impulse and pressure of his 
power upon the question of reconstruction, — just then it pleased 
God that a cowardly and brutal murderer should strike down this 
great man by a blow, dastard-like, from behind, and in the very 
presence of his wife. 

These things make it my duty, fellow-citizens, to say frankly 
and broadly to you here to-day, that however the investigation 
of this matter may turn out, it is written in the destinies of all 
men, that no man can commence upon a career of crime, and 
know at what enormity he will stop;, and this is, whether the 
result of a wide-spread conspiracy or not, the natural and inevi- 
table result of the great crime attempted four years ago against 
the nation. From being traitors, it is the easiest gradation down- 
wards to be murderers and assassins. And let me say to you 
another thing: I trust in God, that the investigations that are 
now going on may not fix the guilt of this enormous offence upon 
any persons who may be considered as representatives of the 
Southern people; for, if that thing does come, no power but the 
Almighty can stay the just vengeance of an outraged nation. I 
hope, as a man anxious to see bloodshed, ruin, and devastation 
cease, I hope that this great crime may be proven to have been 
the offshoot of some individual baseness, — some single criminal. 
Yes, I hope it. 

Fellow-citizens, — The record of President Lincoln is before 
the nation and the world. I affirm, that in the whole history of 
the world, not excluding him who, by common consent, is known 
as the Father of his Country, was there ever presented so spot- 
less, so pure, so generous, so simple, so truthful, so energetic a 
charadler. Politics have ceased: there are no politics in these 
United States; there are no parties in these United States. 



256 Eulogies^ Speeches, and Letters. 

Ele6led originally as the representative of a party, this great man 
became the representative of every loyal heart in the nation! No 
one, but some old hack, whose back is like that of an old horse 
in a bark-mill, adheres to politics now. There is nothing now 
but a nation; nothing that divides us but the national quarrel. 
How widely and how entirely did he spread his inviting arms to 
call in all these wanderers! What has he not done for this place 
and this people? It is to him that you owe your existence as a 
State and a city; and thus it is that this occasion is so moment- 
ous. 

Whatever you have of civil order, of civil law, is the free gift 
of Abraham Lincoln, the tendernesses and charities of whom 
were as inevitable to his nature as light to the sun. They came 
from him as water boils from a spring; the deep fountains of his 
nature yielded uncounted supplies of all kindness and benevo- 
lence: such a man, so clothed in graceful form; such a man, so 
surrounded by all pleasant influences; such a man, in the very 
pride and dignity of his great office, — has fallen by the hand of a 
cut-throat and a bravo; and the American nation, which has held 
its head high for its civilization and its courage, is disgraced by 
the knowledge that the crimes of all the old worn-out barbarism 
of Europe are to be repeated and renewed among us. 

We, the officers of the arm}^, and the soldiers here, revered 
him as our comrade. A man wholly unused to military affairs, 
he has yet taken so deep an interest that probably no man in the 
Cabinet at Washington could more closely follow, and more thor- 
oughly understand, the movements and combinations of our great 
leaders. A man who never had mingled much in the craft of 
statesmanship, he yet, having assumed those duties, recognized at 
once that the true policy for a bold and brave people was to fol- 
low the righteous instin6ls of a just heart and an enlightened in- 
telle6t. He has educated this people up to the position they now 



i^tSutit^ 



Major-General Hurlbut. 257 

hold; and, at last, crowned with honor, having reached the very 
topmost round of the ladder of human ambition, he has stepped 
from that to heaven, there to receive that which will be his re- 
ward, — the plaudits of "Well done, good and faithful servant; 
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

Let me remind you of one thing more, and I am done. The 
President may die; the nation lives! Individuals perish; the su- 
perstructure of our Government stands! Stands, and will stand; 
and the gates of Death and Hell shall not prevail against it. 
We are now rebuilding the shattered portions of that glorious 
fabric, and it stands based upon the throbbing, pulsating joy of 
the brave hearts of millions upon inillions of freemen; and while 
God's mercy continues, and while God's law continues, this 
American Republic, founded on universal right and universal 
freedom, will challenge the admiration, the applause, and if need 
be the fear, of the world. 

Thus, then, we are led to the fa6l that our duties are still as 
incumbent upon us as ever. The great gap that has been made 
in the ostensible leaders of Government will be filled. The glo- 
rious memory of the President will remain to us ; but the solemn, 
assured, onward, determined, inevitable march of this great peo- 
ple to the consummation of her destiny shall not and will not be 
stopped. While, then, we mourn the lost man, brother, and ruler, 
we know that the blow that struck him cannot strike the vitals of 
the nation. Here we are, here we are ready to be, each man in 
his place, — officers, soldiers, citizens, workmen, — all, every- 
where, of all complexions and castes, working for the one 
straightforward object, — the perpetuation of human freedom, the 
progress of human destiny, through God's great agent, the Amer- 
ican Union. 

Netv-Orleans Times, April 2^^, 1S65. 



ADDRESS BY ALFRED T. JONES, ESQ^^ 



FRIENDS, — The President of the United States has recom- 
mended this day to be set apart throughout the land as one 
of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, commemorative of the mourn- 
ful death of our late Chief Magistrate, Abraham Lincoln, on the 
fifteenth day of April last; and at this moment its millions of 
people are assembled around the altar of their God, with sad- 
dened spirits and chastened hearts, uniting in solemn supplication 
and prayer, — a mournful, a noble, and imposing spe6lacle. 

Although on this holy festival of Pentecost the scattered fol- 
loM^ers of Israel's faith are commanded by their holy law to 
repair to the house of prayer to rejoice before the Lord, and 
to lay upon his altar the offerings of grateful hearts for number- 
less blessings enjoyed ; although they are not permitted to make 
it a day of fasting or public mourning, — yet it cannot be improper 
or inappropriate to recall and refle6t upon the great event which 
sits so heavily upon the nation, thereby evincing to the world that 
our hearts beat in unison with our fellow-citizens of other denom- 
inations; that, although a peculiar people in many respefts, we 
feel ourselves a component part of this great community of States, 
exulting in their triumphs, deploring their defeats, rejoicing in 
their joys, and partaking of their sorrows. 



* Mr. Jones is of the Jewish persuasion, and has always been an aftive political opponent 
of Mr. Lincoln. 



Alfred T, Jones ^ Esq. 259 



X 



-^>4 



By commenting on the death of Mr. Lincoln, the people are 
called upon this day to yield the homage due to his exalted sta- 
tion and to his humble virtues ; to confess the common debt due 
to him by mankind, as well as by ourselves ; and to pronounce to 
millions yet unborn that eulogium which will re-echo through all 
time to come. 

But can one who has warmly and earnestly opposed the policy 
and measures of Abraham Lincoln speak kindly of him, or eulo- 
gize his memory? I answer, yes: when such opposition has been 
promptly solely by patriotic considerations, then will the man rise 
superior to the partisan. It is one of the beautiful traits in our 
national chara6ter, that, after the rancor of partisan contests has 
passed awa}^, men readily and frankly recognize the ennobling 
qualities of political opponents. 

Like all who have attained prominent stations, and assumed 
the responsibility of daring enterprises and independent measures, 
it was Mr. Lincoln's lot to see many of his a6fs condemned, and 
himself reviled, by a portion of his fellow-citizens. ' The fire of 
party resentment raged around him with unprecedented violence, 
yet he remained calm and unmoved amid the uncontrolled fury of 
the flames, steadily adhering to, and pursuing, the measures he 
deemed best adapted to the true interests of the nation. The 
grand obje6l of his administration, and which has encountered 
the fiercest opposition, has been achieved. Human bondage has 
been virtually banished from the land. ' The inexorable will of 
the majority, and the exigences of the times, had decreed it; and 
now that the work has been accomplished, all good citizens 
should gracefully submit. It is not the part of sensible men to 
reproach and cavil at the past, but to aid in reconstruaing and 
strengthening, not alone the national Union, but also that unity 
of feeling among our countrymen which has been weakened, but 
not destroyed. 



26o Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

Prior to Mr. Lincoln's death, a change had come over the 
feelings of his opponents. It seemed as if He whose all-seeing 
eye pervades all space, penetrates the innermost recesses of man's 
heart, and views his actions before they are conceived, foreseeing 
the awful tragedy about to be enabled, was in reality prepar- 
ing the hearts of the people to love and venerate the one so soon 
to meet a martyr's doom. Many weeks before that fatal day, truly 
patriotic men of all shades of opinion, in all parts of the land, had 
beo-un to regard Mr. Lincoln with confidence and esteem. 

' So kind and conciliatory an attitude had he assumed towards 
our enemies; so determined and honest a purpose to preserve the 
integrity of the nation was daily exhibited; so firm and unwaver- 
ing a resistance to the radical measures and aims of political 
adherents was indisputably manifested, — that the very men who 
had resisted his ele6lion during the intense excitements of two 
political campaigns were constrained, first, to place implicit faith 
in his patriotism, and integrity of purpose; and, next, to yield a 
(perhaps unwilling) tribute to his sound judgment and ability. 

His noble qualities inspired their confidence, and commanded 
their respe6l. 

Nowhere was grief more unaffe6led and sincere than in the 
hearts of his political opponents. No more unselfish and pro- 
found mourners witnessed the sad funeral rites, than those who 
had honestly opposed his measures; and, indeed, the entire nation, 
as with a single heart bursting with one universal sense of over- 
whelming grief, with one wide-spread voice of sorrow, gave vent 
to a united wail of horror and lament. 

Mr. Lincoln's public career is well known, and has been of 
late continually referred to. I need not speak of it. ' With but 
limited education, through indomitable perseverance and self- 
reliance, he rose gradually on the ladder of life, from the humblest 
round to the topmost pinnacle. Strong and clear in intelle6l, he 



Alfred T. Jones ^ Esq. 261 



grasped at the questions of the day with surprising vigor. No 
fatigue was too great for his iron frame; no labor too much for 
his indomitable will. Though he may not have possessed the 
dazzling talents of some of his predecessors, or the courtly man- 
ners and stately dignity of others, yet he was one of " God's 
noblest works." 

What he said, he meant, and on that all could rely. Plain and 
unassuming in his manner, he was kind, courteous, and affable to 
all, and full of generous impulses. It was this latter trait in his 
chara6ler of which his enemies took advantage, and which his 
friends most feared. 

No one so humble but that he gave him audience; accessible 
to all, he seemed indeed to feel that he was in the stead of father 
to his people. If he had no higher claims upon us, certainly as 
Israelites we should entertain a high regard for his memory. ^ 

While many occupying high positions have either ignored our 
existence, or turned a deaf ear to our claims for protection or 
redress, his just, kind, and generous nature was never appealed to 
by us in vain. On every occasion (and he has been several times 
appealed to) he promptly recognized our claims as a religious 
body to national prote6lion, and acceded unhesitatingly to all our 
just demands. So strong and noble a contrast to others did he 
exhibit in this respe6t, that we should be guilty of gross ingrati- 
tude not to acknowledge it. 

On his accession to power, he found the country involved in a 
formidable and unjustifiable rebellion. Of the cause or condu6t 
of the war, it is not my purpose to speak. There have been wide 
differences of opinion agitating the public mind, inseparable from 
contests of that nature, where those of kindred birth have been 
arrayed against each other. Bitter words have been uttered and 
WTitten. While many are disposed to censure him for errors com- 
mitted, for harsh measures pursued, or extraordinary proceedings 



262 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

instituted, they should refleft on the trying difficulties continually 
encountered, the existence of unknown and deadly foes in the 
very heart of the capital; untried men necessarily placed in 
responsible commands, and, proving incompetent, replaced by 
others; continued pressure by radical extremists among his poli- 
tical adherents, and other innumerable perplexities. 

As events progressed, however, he became better appreciated, 
because better understood. Gigantic as was his task, he shrank 
not from it; but, with a firm self-reliance, with determination to 
pursue the course he deemed a corre6t and righteous one, "with 
firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right," he 
overcame difficulties apparently insurmountable, and, with un- 
wavering confidence in the justice of his cause, pursued it 
unfalteringly to its final triumphant issue. 

Most great men owe their great renown to opportunity, and 
times of greatest calamity often serve to develop the greatest 
minds. It was opportunity which framed and created Abraham 
Lincoln. Prior to the four eventful years of his presidential term 
he was comparatively unknown; but, in that short epoch of his 
y^ existence,. he earned an imperishable fame. Truly do "we live 
in deeds, not years," for centuries of life could not more indelibly 
have written his name among the illustrious ones of history. 

What tongue can explain the mysterious fate which reigns on 
earth; or why the great Ruler of all, in his inscrutable providence 
and infinite wisdom, has permitted the accomplishment of the 
appalling crime which our countr}^ deplores ? " He doeth all 
things well." No mortal eye can penetrate the tortuous paths of 
joy and woe through which man's feet must wander, nor fathom 
the incomprehensible decrees of heaven; so, while we see in our 
afflidlion nought but dire calamity, we know not what great 
purpose it is intended to subserve, and which the future may 
develop. 



Alfred T. Jones, Esq. 263 



Thus far, it has chastened our joy in the hour of triumph. It 
has caused all loyal men to cease political strife, and devote them- 
selves to strengthening the hands of Government, and to yielding 
a firm and united support to his successor; and certainly the time 
and manner of his death has immortalized the memory of Mr. 
Lincoln, and on the pages of our history he stands recorded as a 
patriot and a martyr. Had he died but a few months earlier, after 
a brief space of mourning the memory of his loss would have 
passed away to be simply placed on record among the annals of 
the times. 

But the crowning a6t of his life had been completed; a war 
unprecedented in magnitude and withering desolation had been 
brought to a successful issue : the entire nation stood in admiring 
gaze at the noble magnanimity of his course towards a defeated 
and unscrupulous foe, when, on that ever memorable night, the 
assassin's bullet sped with unerring aim upon its fatal mission. 

The fourteenth day of April ! Terrible day in the annals of 
our country. How pregnant with important events to the Ameri- 
can people is that memorable month! On April 19, 1775, on the 
fields of Lexington and Concord, the first blood was shed in the 
War of 'Independence. On the nineteenth day of April, 1783, 
just eight years afterwards, peace was proclaimed in the 
American army. On the 14th of April, 1861, Fort Sumter was 
surrendered to the rebel forces; and five days afterwards the Mas- 
sachusetts soldiers were inhumanly murdered in the streets of 
Baltimore. 

How brightly opened the early days of that eventful month in 
1865. Four years of bloody warfare, with its attendant vicissi- 
tudes and horrors, had passed, when came the joyful tidings of 
the evacuation of Petersburg; then quickly followed the flight 
of our enemies from Richmond; next, the unconditional surren- 
der of the rebel army and its greatest general. 



264 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

What a universal jubilee prevailed throughout the loyal 
States! Joy sat enthroned on every countenance; each glance 
shone w^ith expe6lation bright; friend greeted friend with heart- 
felt w^armth ; political opponents, with united hands, joined in the 
universal exultation; women wept for joy, and children shouted 
in exuberant delight. Where'er the eye could reach, the beloved 
banner of the free floated gaily in the breeze; the bells chimed 
forth their merry peals, and the blaze of joyous lights, enlivening 
night's darkened shades, attested a grateful people's joy. Vi6tory, 
bloodless and complete, bright harbinger of sweet and gentle 
Peace, announced her welcome coming. 

Thus was it when the sun sank to rest on the eve of the four- 
teenth day of April; but on the advent of the following morn how 
changed the scene! What rumors, gathering sound, fall on the 
ear! O'er the ele6lric wire, from shore to shore, sped the dread 
tidings, — our ruler slain! Hushed were the sounds of revelry and 
mirth; mute was each voice, and tearful every eye; mournfully 
waved the gay flags in the bright light of day, decked in the 
sombre emblems of grief; stilled were the pealing chimes, while 
in their stead the solemn requiem knell fell heavily on the heart. 

Fell messenger of death! could no presaging sign, no warn- 
ing voice, announce thy coming? Swift and unforeseen, like the 
lightning's flash, thou camest when least expe6ted, and threw thy 
lengthened shade over years to come. Doubtless you all can 
recolle6l your own sensation at hearing the sad intelligence; but 
never, while memory retains her seat, can I forgot my own. 
Little beings that I love ran into my room, their eyes beaming 
with consternation and concern, exclaiming, " Mr. Lincoln has 
been killed! " I grasped the paper that they bore, glanced at the 
fatal words, and, opponent as I was, the unbidden tear would 
start. I wept to think of the kind-hearted ruler so inhumanly 
murdered ; wept, that beneath the sacred banner of our country 



Alfred T. Jones, ^^9\ 265 



wretches so vile as these assassins had been born and nurtured* 
wept when I reflected on the unparalleled crime, and the inefface- 
able stain infli6led on our nation's fair escutcheon. 

And, as the day sped on, the multitudes, with awe-struck hearts, 
thronged the busy streets with saddened mien, as if within each 
home the destroying angel had set his stamp of woe. Why was 
his loss thus mourned ? Other precious lives have fallen vi6lims 
to insatiate war: he was but one of the people, temporarily 
intrusted with power and authority. True. Many a bright exist- 
ence has been quenched in the' glow and fulness of its prime. 
We have lost heroes upon the field of battle; we have mourned 
when soaring genius died in mid career: but, in the humble spirit 
that had fled, the hopes of millions were centred. 

The destinies of the nation were in his keeping: powers 
never before conferred had been invested in him; and, at the 
moment of his death, he held within his grasp the mightiest desti- 
nies man ever controlled. Upon the utterance -of his thoughts 
and will the Republic's future rested. On him was riveted the 
nation's gaze as on a radiant and worshipped shrine, watching 
with fearful anxiety the close of the great work of pacification so 
auspiciously commenced. 

He was the typical Father of the Republic, the great head of 
the nation; and for him, as such, we mourned. 

No event of this nature that ever occurred on earth has 
created such intense and wide-spread regret. While our own 
great nation mourned its illustrious Chief, and ere his remains had 
reached the sepulchre, all Europe was ele6trified with the sad 
intelligence. Wonderful and unaffe(5ted were the evidences of 
_ sympathy and grief wherever Civilization has her home. The 
masses, the nobles, the monarchs of the world, paid homage to 
the memory of that honest, humble man. Americans may well 
be gratified, and feel an honest pride in this great tribute to his 

34 



< 



266 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 

sterling worth and unpretending virtues, as well as to the impor- 
tant position our Republic holds among the powers of the earth. 

No funeral pageant that the world has ever witnessed ap- 
proached in grandeur that which attended the coffined body of the 
illustrious dead. Never were such heartfelt honors paid to any 
potentate. Slowly and sadly was he borne through the heart of 
this great nation to his final resting-place in the mighty West, 
amid the silent, tearful homage of millions of his fellow-citizens. 

Marbled monuments, with grateful inscriptions, may arise; 
statues of bronze may attest the love of his people to future ages : 
but the memory of his a6ts, the triumph of his policy, and his cruel 
death, will raise a monument within the hearts of the present 
generation that will endure while life or memory shall last. 

Springing from the people, and raised by his exertions from 
the humblest station to the > proudest rank on earth, he was a 
noble representative of true American chara6ter. To his career 
every American youth should point with admiration. It is our 
duty to extol the virtues of our great men, and -strive to emulate 
their good deeds. 

The clamors of war have ceased: that fell destroying power, 
to which the lives of thousands have been sacrificed, which has 
raged over many a verdant plain, and desolated many a happy 
hearth, has been at length allayed. 

And now, hail, blessed Peace! Once more unclouded will she 
shine upon us, as bright and cheering in her rays as the fair orb 
of day: man will no longer seek to destroy his brother man; nor 
shall the tender eye of Pity shrink from Victory's crimsoned ban- 
ners. No longer shall the streets of beleagured cities echo with 
the cries of pursuers and pursued, nor the azure vault of heaven 
be illuminated with the glare of peaceful homes fired by the relent- 
less torch. No longer shall rich harvests, Heaven's noble bounty 
to ungrateful man, be trampled and destroyed by invading hosts. 



Alfred T. J ones ^ Esq. ' 267 



while gaunt famine and pale distress follow their desolating steps. 
Hail, blessed Peace! Again will the busy hum of industr}^ be 
heard over our wide domain; again will the plough of the husband- 
man glide tranquilly over fields now blasted with the fires of war, 
while a bright and glorious future dawns upon us. 

Doubtless within the breast of our martyred President arose 
many a bright anticipation of tranquil and happy times approach- 
ing. Guided in all his. a6ls "with malice toward none, with 
charity to all," no undue exultation over vanquished foes pervaded 
his kind and noble heart; but it glowed with a quiet joy and 
Heat^en-dire6led gratitude that his work had nearly ended, and 
that, beneath his guidance, quiet and happiness was once more 
about to bless his country. 

In my address to you, I have confined myself solely to eulo- 
gizing the memory of Mr. Lincoln. The moral and religious 
instruction to be gleaned from the various circumstances attend- 
ing his cruel death have been eloquently dwelt upon on former 
occasions by our respefted minister, far more ably, and by fitter 
lips than mine. 

According to the will of the everlasting King, our President 
has been taken from this earth. May the great God of Israel 
have mercy on his soul! may he pardon his iniquities, and keep 
his good deeds ever in his sight! In the language of our beauti- 
ful ritual, " May his soul enter the resting-place of the patriarchs ! 
may our God guide him to the cherubim; and may he be decreed 
the happiness of paradise! May the repose established in the 
celestial abode, a forgiveness of trespasses, favor from Him that 
throneth on high, and a goodly portion in the life to come, be 
the resting-place and the reward " of Abraham Lincoln ! 

Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2, 1865. 



ORATION BY REV. HORATIO STEBBINS: 

DELIVERED AT SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., APRIL I9, 1865. 



AFFLICTED PEOPLE ! — In pathetic imagination we have 
taken up our march, following the dead corpse of our great 
leader, till at length we are come beneath this prote6ling canopy, 
reared like a sky above the arts and industries of a great people. 
Little did we think, when from the vigor of abundant life we 
extemporized this edifice, and in very play of childhood lifted 
this dome toward the sky, that it was to give us such shelter, 
and receive such consecration. Sweeter than the odor of all 
pleasant fruits, more precious than the wine of the vintage, 
more beautiful than the work of the cunning artificer, this tender 
and reverent respe6l, this aroma of a people's tears. Oh temple 
of peace, in a land of war! open wide thy gates, that the 
men of the city may weep at thine altars for the sorrow of 
the land! 

Our great leader still leads us well; for we keep time, in our 
march, with the throbs of that precious heart which, though it has 
ceased to beat in the breast \vhich bore it, still sways the tides 
within us as the sea sways beneath the stars. It is the quality of 
all lofty virtue, and distinguished excellence of public administra- 
tion, to be embodied in principles, sentiments, and convi6lions, 
which appeal to all men on the broad ground of reason and truth. 



Rev. Horatio Stebbins. 269 



All great and good rulers are the representatives of ideas and 
principles which lie very near the common heart. The wise 
and beneficent ruler of a State enters into that humanit}^ over 
whose life he is called to preside. Men call him theirs by kin- 
dred tie of universal justice. They say they love him because by 
happy instinft. They know that the fountains of his soul are in 
the mountain summits of the same truth with theirs. His life is 
in some sense the life of mankind, — the personification of the 
best hopes and the best beliefs of men. 

When such an one is brought from great elevation, meekly 
borne for the good of men, to. join the great equality of death, he 
seems greater to our minds in that equality than in his exaltation; 
for the powers that made him dear to us then are set free in us, 
and through our tears we see the setting glories of our love. 
Among all imposing scenes and events of which the earth is the 
theatre, the most sublime is a nation in tears, — in tears for a man 
who represented its principles, and to whom it had confided its 
noblest trusts. It testifies that there is such a thing as public 
faith; that there is such a thing as the public good; that there are 
principles of justice, honor, and truth, which sway all hearts, which 
are worth living for, and which are worth dying for. It testifies 
that while good men die, wept and honored, principles have an 
unending life, pervading humanity, and passing from man to man, 
from generation to generation, and from age to age; and, while 
we join to-day the vast procession of a nation's sorrow, we find 
comfort and consolation in the thought that we stand also in that 
other procession, whose ever-onward motion is the progress of 
mankind. 

We have been obliged to reconcile our minds as best we 
could to the relentless fa6l that the President is dead, and that he 
died by the hand of an assassin. At first, the shock was too great 
to bear. The mind could not admit the fa6l, with all its attendant 



270 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 

appalling circumstances, as a part of its intelligence; but we are 
so constituted, that whatever is we must confess, and no success- 
ful defence can be made against the patient persuasions of reason. 
The death of the President, had it come by divine appointment 
unmixed with human instrumentality; had he died in his own 
house, upon his own bed, surrounded by all the charities which 
bless the last moments of earthly existence, — it could have been 
received and borne with a certain patience, and equanimity of 
mortal anguish. We could have said, " Death has all privilege, 
and the freedom of the earthly realm." 

But when the shock of this dark wickedness is over, and the 
mind assumes its serenity once more; looks out upon the world of 
thought and life; thinks, compares, reasons, and judges, — the first 
intelligent impression it receives from refle6tion is a sudden sur- 
prise at its own former shock and wonder. Why should the 
assassination of the President fill us with astonishment and dis- 
may? If I am told that it is the appalling crime at which the 
blood congeals, I reply, that it is of the same nature with that 
power against which we contend, every throb of whose life is a 
crime against mankind. The assassin is the finest, the intensest 
expression of organized barbaric passions. Defeated in princi- 
ples, and compelled to retreat before the smallest ray of truth, he 
lets loose his insane rage upon persons. Never did assassin's 
blow strike so noble a head; yet never did assassin's blow fall 
so helpless. What crime has not the rebel power committed? 
It would seem, from the shock to our sensibilities, that we were 
not aroused to the enormity of that wickedness until we had 
seen it displayed in all its infernal intensity of malignant passions. 
The plot to murder the President — whether it be intrigue and 
conspiracy of individuals, or whether it be the design of the rebel 
powers — is of the same quality as the rebellion itself, and has 
its roots there. The assassin carried the same fire that first flashed 



Rev. Horatio Stebbijts. 271 

the lurid glare of war upon the sky at Sumter, and the same 
perfidy in his breast, with Davis and Floyd and Breckinridge. 
The import and meaning of the assassination are not any qualifi- 
cation of the death of the President, — not any new element of 
embarrassment in the fun6lions of government; but it is the strong 
flash of light which it throws into the sunless caverns of perfidy 
and wrong in the powers against which we contend. Did we 
need such an admonition? I will not forestall Providence by 
saying that we did not. Of one thing I am sure: the philosophic 
historian will record with pungent moral satire the insensibility 
of the American people to the deep wrongs of human slavery. 
He will record too, that, after years of devastating war, there were 
still some of moral dulness so great, and political sagacity so 
short-sighted, that it required the blood of the President, drawn 
by the hand of a hired assassin, hired by the power with which 
they would strike hands, to rouse them to the awful realities of 
outraged laws, and to feel the presence of events such as inaugu- 
rate new eras. 

Men are mightier in their death than in their life when they 
die exponents of principles that live for ever. If it is true that 
nations have no immortality, it is for the same reason that the 
human body has none. Its forms are too gross to sustain that 
exalted intelle6lual and moral life. But they are the theatre for 
the display of all that is human; and nothing human ever dies. 
They are a part of an almighty and benignant purpose for the 
education of man; and whatever mingles in that stream is perpet- 
ual. Our intelligence refers this universe to the government of a 
Power all-mighty, all-wise, and all-good. Our religious faith 
rests in that, by moral instin6ls as natural as those which lead a 
child to cling to its mother; and we are not permitted to believe 
that any wild and random power of evil is let loose upon the 
earth. The assassin is the most malignant and hideous form of 



272 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

human passions; and, as he sele6ls his vi6tim by the caprice 
of bad powers, it seems that his success is the triumph of unmiti- 
gated evil. But that dagger may point in the dark to principles 
that men have imperfe6lly comprehended, and bring out clearer 
still the latent meaning of ideas and events, as night reveals the 
upper deep of stars and space. 

The President, for himself, indeed, is not unfortunate in his 
death; though we cannot in imagination look on that dear heart, 
drooping and heavy under the blow of the assassin, without 
a shock to our sensibilities. If we contemplate him in that event 
which comes alike to all, we must indeed feel that his was a 
singular felicity, by which he was enabled to win a place as 
preserver of States, and benefa6tor of mankind, not less than to 
make himself secure in the hearts of his country-men. We should 
indeed have wished that he might have lived to see the Republic 
once more united and happy; and at length, returning as an 
American citizen to the place frorn whence* the people called 
him, he might have passed the mellow autumn days in the ripen- 
ing glory of the people's love. But since, in the inscrutable 
providence of God, he was to be taken from our sight on swift 
chariot of fire and blood, let us lift up our minds to him as he 
sits among the immortals, victorious over the pains of death, and 
powers of hell; and from that throne, exceeding high and lifted 
up, let him still sway the empire of our loyal hearts. 

Concerning our country, let us be as strong men, who beneatb 
their tears can hide the thunders of an unconquered will, and the 
consecrated powers of justice and truth. We have new cause of 
gratitude in the principles of our Government, that they are not an 
arbitrary enactment, but live in the people's love. Let us gird 
on our armor, and, following the lead of our immortal President, 
" if God wills that the war continue until all the wealth piled by 
the bondsmen in two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil 



Rev. Horatio Stebbins. 



273 



shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the 
lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 
three thousand years ago," — so let us say, that " the judgments 
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 

Steamer Bulletin, Sa/i Francisco, Cal., A/iril 22, 1S65. 




35 



SPEECH OF REV. JOSEPH P. THOMPSON, D.D.: 

AT THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB, UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK, APRIL 15, 1S65. 



T HAD thought that we had already derived from this war all 
^ the lessons that it was designed to teach, whether by its dis- 
cipline of suffering and sacrifice, or its fruits of triumph and 
rejoicing, — lessons of humiliation, lessons of patience, lessons 
of endurance, lessons of courage, lessons of faith, of hope, of 
beneficence, and lessons of ever-growing confidence in our Gov- 
ernment and in Almighty God. But it seems that that voice 
and holy Providence which has guided us at every step of the war 
had yet other lessons for the nation, the necessity and the fitness 
of which we recognize to-day. First, amid the rejoicings of vic- 
tory, and the feelings of magnanimity and forbearance called forth 
by the humiliation of the enemy, there was needed one final reve- 
lation of the atrocity of this treason, at which the nation and the 
civilized world should stand aghast. From first to last this conspi- 
racy has been one stupendous crime, without plea, of ignorance or 
of provocation, and without a shadow of justifying motive; but it 
was left for its expiring hours to unveil to us the horrible depths 
of its atrocity. For, whatever the motive or impulse of the assas- 
sins, they represent the spirit of the conspiracy. Vanquished in 
the field, its pretence of a government overthrown, its military 
power broken, its political leaders fugitive, its finances scattered 
to the winds, it comes with stealthy tread into the scenes of socia 



Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, D.D. .275 



festivity, and from behind drives the bullet of the assassin through 
the head of the mildest, gentlest of men, as he sits beside his wife 
in a circle of friends; and then, with an infamy yet more horrible, 
it invades the sacred chamber of sickness, the awful sanftity of 
impending death, and there butchers a feeble, maimed old man, 
upon his bed. It is the monster crime of history. Yet it was 
needful that this conspiracy should thus reveal itself for the final, 
righteous condemnation of the civilized world. Henceforth all 
nations will know with what we have have been dealing in these 
four weary and terrible years. 

The nation needed another lesson of unity, which could be 
learned only through a great sympathetic sorrow. We bow 
to-day before the majesty of sorrow, and feel that we are one. 
We have felt the spontaneous thrill of patriotism, when the vast 
area in front of this building was thronged with citizens outraged F 
at the fall of Sumter. We have felt the sympathetic throb of 
common dangers, and have been pressed together by our perils 
and our fears. And w^e have felt also the thrill of exultation, and 
the community of joy. But nothing so fuses and welds human 
souls together as participation in some great sorrow. Henceforth 
our souls are one. Even the tone of opposition journals has been 
melted to-day into the pathos of this mighty grief Henceforth 
this nation is fused into one, in the crucible of calamity, and is 
cemented by the blood of its Head. 

A third lesson impressed upon us to-day is the imperishable 
vitality of Government, and the grandeur of our Constitution 
under all emergencies. We have seen it tested in conflia with 
foreign powers ; we have seen it tested by the fearful strain of 
civil war, and by the scarce less anxious trial of a presidential 
eleaion in the midst of war, — and it has stood. And now, under 
this severest shock, — a shock that might shatter a kingdom or an 
empire into chaos, — it still stands. 



276 Eulogies^ Speeches, mid Letters. 

That mysterious, invisible, impalpable entity, we call the 
State, — that intangible something, that we call Government, 
stands forth to-day in awful reality. 

The sovereignty of the people lifts its next representative into 
the just-vacant chair. 

The State moves on, without pause at the nation's grief, — 
without concussion from the blow that struck down the nation's 
Head. 

The bullet and knife of the assassin did not touch its vitality. 
The life of the Constitution was not endangered. The State 
moves calmly, steadily onward, with no jar in any of its fun6lions. 
It seems to me that the statue of Liberty which crowns the dome 
of the Capitol, — that worthy and typical memorial of Abraham 
Lincoln's administration, — looking calmly down upon the august 
presence of death, beckoned to the State beyond, saying, " Let 
the dead bury their dead: follow thou me." And the State 
moved on, and will move on, in the line of freedom and of 
justice, unshaken for ever. 

Such are the dire6t teachings of this providence. The time, 
the men, the manner, all conspired to make these lessons most 
impressive. 

The time: just when the power of the conspiracy was 
broken; just when Abraham Lincoln's policy and fame had 
rounded into fulness; just when there was no furthur hope from 
organized resistance to the Government, — came this wanton 
cruelty of revenge. The men: the two men in all this nation 
whose personal tone and spirit were least obnoxious to the rebels, 
whose forbearance and mildness were stretched to the utmost 
limits of our charity, < — these are the men thus butchered for 
sustaining Government and law. The manner: had the President 
fallen by the bullet of a marksman when he was at the front, or 
by the dagger of an assassin at Richmond, our grief at his loss 



Rev. yoseph P. Tko?npson, D.D. 277 

would have been mingled with regret for the needless exposure. 
But this crime, perpetrated in a place presumed to be safe from 
violence, and at an hour devoted to festivity, and repeated at the 
bed of death, makes these lessons stand out before us in chara6ters 
of blood. 

This is not the time for eulogy of the illustrious men whose 
names are blended in this sorrow. For Mr. Seward, I shall not 
anticipate the tribute of history. He himself has anticipated its 
verdi6t in his speeches in the great debates on slavery, in the 
Senate. In one of these he gives this as the rule adopted for 
the government of this conduft: — 

"Let thj scope 
Be one fixed mind for all : thy rights approve 
To thy own conscience, gradually renewed : 
Learn to make Time the father of wise Hope ; 
Then trust thy cause to the arm of Fortitude, 
The light of Knowledge, and the warmth of Love." 

And, in a speech against the iniquity of fastening slavery upon 
Kansas, you remember that, forecasting a period- of fifty, of one 
hundred, of two hundred years, he summoned before him the 
millions who would be affefted by the a6tion of that hour. " I 
shall not meet them," he said, "here on the earth; but I shall meet 
them all on that day when I shall give up the final account of that 
stewardship which my country has confided to me." Then, enu- 
merating the various considerations arising from his early patri- 
otic and Christian training, his study of history, his political 
observation and experience, he added, " If I were now to consent 
to such an a6t, I should be obliged, when that last day shall come 
to me, to call upon the rocks and the mountains to fall upon me, 
and crush me and my name, detested then by myself^ into endless 
oblivion." Then, in the name of the Constitution, of justice, and 
of humanity, protesting against the crime, he took his solemn 



278 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

appeal to the great Searcher of hearts; and there we may safely 
leave him as he hangs trembling on the verge of eternity. 

Of the chara6ler and virtues of the President, it is not necessary 
that I should speak. We had learned to lean upon his judgment 
as we had always leaned upon his integrity; to confide in his 
sagacity as a statesman, no less than in his honesty as a patriot. 
His kindliness and gentleness of heart, his candor and magna- 
nimity, had commanded the respeft even of his enemies, and all 
had come to confess him wise and prudent, where once they had 
thought him slow and timid. Firmness he had when firmness 
was needed; and it may be said of him, as Motley has so finely 
said of his great prototype, William of Orange, " whether origin- 
ally of a timid temperament or not, he was certainly possessed of 
perfect courage at last: he went through life, bearing the load of a 
people's sorrows upon his shoulders, with a smiling face." . 

That cheerful heart sustained him under burdens and trials 
hitherto unknown in our history; and we can add no higher 
eulogy than the story of the good Prince of the Netherlands, that 
repeats itself to-day: "As long as he lived he was the guiding- 
'^ star of a whole brave nation; and, when he died, the little children 
cried in the streets." 

Above all, his was the strength of religious faith. Abraham 
Lincoln read the word of God for his daily guidance, and was 
not ashamed to have it known that he was a man of prayer. 
That solemn, almost prophetic, utterance of his at his inaugura- 
tion, so puzzling to mere politicians, will stand in history as the 
grand testimony of a true, human soul. There was but one thing 
more that Abraham Lincoln could do, — not for himself but for 
us, — that he should lay down his life for the country whose Union 
and freedom had become the very essence of that life. By that 
sacrifice the redemption of the nation is hallowed, is perfe6ted, is 
sure. 



Rev. yoseph P. Thompson. D.D. 279 

I return for a moment to the historic parallel just cited. Wil- 
liam of Orange was assassinated in the quietude of his own home, 
and just as he " had established the emancipated Commonwealth 
upon a secure foundation. But here the parallel fails : the death 
of William frustrated the just-approaching union of all the Neth- 
erlands; but the restored unity of these United States, which 
Abraham Lincoln had almost accomplished, is made, if possible, 
more certain by his death. Through the gloom of this morning, 
there flashed upon me an almost instantaneous ray of light, reveal- 
ing the possible purpose of divine Providence in this event. 
We had reached a moment more critical even, more thickly set 
with perils, than were the doubtful issues of the battle-field. The 
political aspe6l of Virginia foreshadowed serious complications; 
and there was danger that the very virtues of the President would 
be so circumvented and abused that the authors of this conspi- 
racy would go "unwhipped of justice." God meant not so; and, 
therefore, when he had led Abraham Lincoln up to the full height 
of his sublime, immortal mission, he took him to himself And 
now, from the thick cloud that drapes his body, there reaches 
forth the red right arm, not of vengeance, but of justice. For 
justice there must be, if the nation is to live in peace. This 
rebellion drew its life from these two roots, — pride of social caste, 
and lust of political domination, — both springing from the great 
tap-root, slavery. We must exterminate these, every fibre of 
them, from our soil. The perpetual alienation of the estates of the 
conspirators, the perpetual disfranchisement of the conspirators 
themselves, cutting them up root and branch, is indispensable to 
the peace, yes, to the life, of the nation. And for that work of 
inexorable justice we have a man who hates the rebellion and 
hates slavery with a perfea hatred; who has had that hatred 
burnt into his soul; who himself has been hunted by assassins; 
who knows the rebel leaders, their crime, and their cunning, and 



28o Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

who will not be balked of justice by their devices. At Nashville 
I was shown the estates of two rebels, one of whom offered the 
Confederacy a site for its Capitol, the other gave \\. fifty thousand 
dollars, and offered to mortgage his property for its support; and 
both these had sneaked back under the amnesty proclamation. 
Andrew Johnson knows such men, and their perjury. With 
nothing vindi6tive in our spirit, we must save the masses of the 
South itself by annihilatmg the slave oligarchy. 

I am happy to say here, that, on careful inquiry at competent 
sources, I believe that the infirmity which so distressed us a few 
weeks ago was not the indication of a habit, but the fault of an 
hour. Let us rally with a generous confidence about the new 
President, strengthening him, not only against his enemies and 
ours, but, if need be, against himself. Less than a year ago, I 
expressed to 'Andrew Johnson, in his own home, the gratitude of 
a Northern man for the sacrifices he had made for the country. 
" Sir," said he, " there have been hours in this dark and terrible 
struggle when nothing sustained me but faith. I had seen my 
property seized, my friends scattered, my life in jeopardy, my 
State in chaos; reason failed me, experience failed me, and I 
should have given over in despair had I not believed that some- 
where in the universe there is a right, and that behind it there is 
a God who will maintain it." That God, I doubt not, will main- 
tain Andrew Johnson in the path of rectitude. Let none of us 
be wanting in fidelity. 

Friends, it is night, — a dark and dreary night; a fit close of such 
a day of gloom. The clouds drop sympathetic tears. But to-mor- 
row comes the morning of the resurrection; and, even now, I see 
Him who is the resurre6tion and the life summoning this nation 
to a higher and a holier life, for our salvation and to his glory. 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS 



AT A MEETING OF AMERICANS HELD IN LONDON, MAY I. 



LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, — I have been desired to 
call you together, for the sake of giving some common form 
of'expression to our emotions, stirred up as they have been by the 
late fearful calamity. In presence of such an awful event, we are 
forcibly impressed, not merely with the commonplace idea of 
mortal vicissitude, but with the more solemn duty of keeping 
ourselves wholly free from the indulgence of any unworthy pas- 
sion. The ordinary jars of human life are hushed before such a 
catastrophe. A great Virginian statesman once said, that " he 
trembled for his country when he refle6led that God is just." The 
dreaded visitation appears to have come upon us in the third and 
fourth generation. Let us endeavor to bear ourselves with pa- 
tience and humility. But, whilst acknowledging our shortcom- 
ings, let us draw closer and closer together, whilst we unite in 
one earnest wail of sorrow for* our loss; for I may be permitted 
to observe that, in this loss, the bereavement is wholly our own. 
We are entirely to bear the responsibility of it. The man who 
has fallen was immolated for no a6l of his own. It may well be 
doubted whether, during his whole career, he ever made a single 
personal enemy. In this peculiarity he shone prominent among 
statesmen. No: he who perpetrated the crime had no narrow 

36 



282 Eulogies^ Speeches, aiid Lcttcis. 

purpose. It was because Abraham Lincoln was a faithful expo- 
nent of the sentiments of a whole people that he was stricken 
down. The blow that was aimed at him was meant to fall on 
them. The ball that penefa-ated his brain was addressed to the 
heart of each and every one of us. It was a fancied short way 
of paralyzing the Government which Ave have striven so hard to 
maintain. It was. then, for our cause that Abraham Lincoln 
died, and not his own. If he was called a tyrant, who was ele- 
vated to his high post by the spontaneous voices of a gi-eater 
number of men than had ever been given in any republic before, 
it was only because he was obeying the wishes of those who 
elected him. It is we who must stand responsible for his deeds. 
It is he who has paid the penalty for executing our will. Surely, 
then, this is the strongest of reasons why all of us should join, as 
with one voice, in a chorus of lamentation for his fall. It was 
one of the peculiar merits of Mr. Lincoln, that he knew how to 
give shape in action to the popular feelings as they developed 
themselves under his observation. He never sought to lead, but 
rather to follow; and thus he succeeded in the difficult task of 
successfully combining conservatism with progress. This, surely, 
was not like tyranny. His labor was always to improve. Hence 
it was that he conducted a war of unexampled magnitude, alwavs 
bearing in mind the primary purpose for which it had been com- 
menced, at the same time that he associated with it broader ones 
as the opportunity came. He had pledged himself, at the outset, 
to accomplish certain objects; and he never forgot that pledge. 
The time had at last arrived when he might honestly claim that it 
would be fulfilled. It was in that very moment he was taken 
away. On the very same day of the year when the national flag, 
which just four years before had been lowered to triumphant ene- 
mies at Fort Sumter, was once more lifted to its original position 
by the hand of the same officer who had suffered the indio^nitv 



Hon. Charles Francis Adams. 283 



that commenced the war, Abraham Lincoln fell. His euthanasia 
is complete. For him we ought not to mourn. His work was 
done; he had fought the good tight; he had finished his course. 
The orief is all for ourselves alone. And now, we who stand 
around his body may well cry, " Go up, go up, with your gory 
temples twined with the evergreen symbols of a patriot's wreath, 
and bearing the double glory of a martyr's crown. Go up, 
whilst for us here remaining on earth your memory shall be 
garnered in the hearts of us and our latest posterity, in common 
with the priceless treasures heaped up by the great fathers of the 
Republic, and close by that of the matchless Washington.'' But 
although we profoundly lament this loss, it must not be presumed 
that we do so as having no hope. We have parted with a most 
faithful servant. But the nation has not lost with him one atom 
of the will which animated others of its servants as fully as it 
did him. It is one of the notable features of this great struggle, 
that it is not particular men who have attempted to lead on the 
people, but rather that the people have first given the tone, to 
the level of which their servants must come up, or else sink out 
of sight and be forgotten. They have uniformly designated to 
them their wishes. To one man they have said, " Come up," and 
to another, " Give way,'' and in either case they have been as 
implicitly obeyed. Whoever it be that is employed, the spirit 
that must animate him comes from a higher source. The cause 
of the country, then, does not depend on any man or any set of 
men. It has now called to the front the individual whom it had 
already elevated to the second post in the Government. He had 
been pointed out for that place by a sense of his approved fidelity 
to the Union, at the moment when all around him were faltering 
or falling away. In the national Senate he stood, Abdiel like, firm 
and determined, in encountering with truth and force the fatal 
sophistry of Jefferson Davis and his associates, and in denouncing 



284 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

the course of action which was leading them to their ruin. Four 
years af intense and continued trials within the borders of his 
own State have been passed in the effort to reconstruct the edifice 
of civil government, which they had overthrown. No one has 
braved greater dangers to his person, and to all that was held 
most precious to a man in this world, than he. Those four years 
have not been passed without at once proving the firmness of 
his faith, and the progressive nature of his ideas. He, too, has 
been susceptible to the influence of the national opinion. He, 
too, has gradually been brought to the convi6tion, that slavery, 
which he once defended, has been our bane, and the cause of all 
our woe. And he, too, will follow his predecessor in making the 
recognition of the principle of human liberty the chief pathway 
to restoration. Maybe, that he will color his policy with a little 
more of the sternness gathered from the severity of his own trials. 
He may give a greater prominence to the image of Justice than 
to that of Mercy, in dealing with notorious offenders. But, if he 
do, to whom is this change to be imputed? Lincoln leaned to 
mercy, — and he was taken off. Johnson has not promoted him- 
self The magician who worked this change is the enemy him- 
self It would seem almost as if it were the will of Heaven, 
which has interposed the possibility of this marvellous retribution. 
Yet, even if we make proper allowances for this difference, the 
great fa6t remains clear, that Andrew Johnson, like his predeces- 
sor, will exert himself to the utmost of his power fully to re- 
establish in peace and harmony the beneficent system of govern- 
ment which he has already hazarded so much to sustain. And 
should it happen that he too — which Heaven avert! — should by 
some evil design be removed from the post now assigned to him, 
the effe6t would only be that the next man in the succession pre- 
scribed by the public law, and inspired from the same common 
source, will be summoned to take his place. And so it would go 



Hon. Charles Francis Adams. 285 

on, if need be, in a line, like that in Macbeth's vision, " stretching 
out to the crack of doom." The Republic has but to command 
'the services of any of her children, and, w^hether to meet open 
danger in the field, or the perils of the more crafty and desperate 
assassin, experience shows them equally ready to obey her call. 
So long as the heroic spirit animates her frame, the requisite 
agents will not fail to execute her will. Any attempt to paralyze 
her by striking down more or less of them will only end, as every 
preceding design to injure her has ended, in disappointment and 
bitter despair. Let us, then, casting aside all needless apprehen- 
sions for the policy of our land, now concentrate our thoughts 
for the moment upon the magnitude of the offence which has de- 
prived us of our beloved Chief in the very moment of most inter- 
est to our cause; and let us draw together as one man in the 
tribute of our admiration of one of the purest, the most single- 
minded and noble-hearted, patriots that ever ruled over the people 
of any land. 

London Daily News, May 2, 1865. 




SPEECH OF BENJAMIN DISRAELI 



IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, LONDON, MAY I, 1865. 



SIR, — There are rare instances when the sympathy of a nation 
approaches those tenderer feelings that, generally speaking, 
are supposed to be peculiar to the individual, and to form the 
happy privilege of private life; and I think this is one of them. 
Under all circumstances, we should have bewailed the catastrophe 
at Washington; under all circumstances, we should have shud- 
dered at the means by which it was accomplished. But in the 
chara6ter of the vi6lim, and in the very accessories of his almost 
latest moments, there is something so homely and so innocent 
that it takes the subject, as it were, out of the pomp of history, 
and out of the ceremonial of diplomacy. It touches the heart of 
nations, and appeals to the domestic sentiments of mankind. 

Sir, — Whatever may be the various and var3nng opinions of 
this House, and the country generally, of the policy of the late 
President of the United States, of this, I think, all must be agreed, 
that in a trial which, perhaps more than any other, tested the 
moral quality of the man, he performed his duty with simplicity 
and strength. Nor is it possible for the people of England to 
forget at this moment, that he sprang from the same fatherland, 
and spoke the same mother-tongue. When crimes of this char- 
after are perpetrated, the public mind is apt to fall into gloom and 
perplexit}'^ ; and that has arisen because it is as ignorant of the 



Benjamin Disraeli. 287 



causes as it is of the consequences of such an aft. But it is our 
part, I think, to re-assure them under any unreasoning panic or 
despondency. Assassination has never changed the history of 
the world. I will not refer to instances of remote antiquity, 
although an accident has made the most memorable example of 
those times familiar at this moment to the mind and memory 
of most gentlemen present. Even the costly sacrifice of a Caesar 
did not propitiate the inevitable destiny of his country. But in 
more modern times, with whose feelings we are more familiar, 
men were animated and influenced by the same interests as our- 
selves. The violent deaths of two heroic men, Henry IV. of 
France, and the Prince of Orange, are conspicuous illustrations 
of this great truth. Therefore, at this moment, while I second 
the address to the Crown, and express upon my own part, and, I 
hope, on the part of every member of the House, feelings of un- 
afte6led and profound sympathy with the citizens of the United 
States at the untimely end of their elefted Chief, I would not sanc- 
tion any sentiment of depression. I would rather take this oppor- 
tunity of expressing my fervent hope, that from these awful years 
of trial the various populations of North America may come out 
elevated, chastened, rich in that accumulative wisdom, and strong 
in that disciplined energy, which a young nation can only acquire 
in a protraaed and perilous struggle. Then will be open to them 
again, not merely the same course of power and prosperity which 
they have heretofore pursued, but they will pursue that course of 
power and prosperity for the general happiness of mankind. It is 
with these feelings. Sir, that I now second the address to the 
Crown. 

Loudon Dai'lv Nczva, May 2, 1865. 



SPEECH OF SIR GEORGE GREY: 

IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, LONDON, MAY I, 1865. 



I VERY much regret that in the unavoidable absence of my 
noble friend at the head of the Government, in w^hose name 
notice was given of a motion for an address to the Crown, to 
express the sorrow and indignation of this House at the assassina- 
tion of the President of the United States, and to pray Her Ma- 
jesty to communicate their sentiments on the part of the House of 
Commons to the Government of the United States, — I very much 
regret that it has devolved upon me to move this address. I feel, 
however, that it is comparatively unimportant by whom the mo- 
tion is made, because I am confident that this address to the 
Crown, to which I am about to ask the House to agree, is one that 
will meet with its cordial and unanimous assent. When the 
news, a few days ago, of the assassination of the President of the 
United States, and, I hope, I may now say, of the unsuccessful 
attempt to assassinate Mr. Seward, reached this country, the first 
impression was that the intelligence could not be true. It was 
hoped by every one, that no one could be found capable of com- 
mitting a crime of so atrocious a nature; but when the truth was 
forced upon us, when we could no longer entertain any doubt of 
the fa6ls of the case, the feeling that succeeded was one of deep 
and universal sorrow, horror, and indignation. We felt as if some" 
great calamity had befallen ourselves. In the civil war, the ex- 



Sir George Grey. 289 



istence and long continuance of which we so sincerely deplore, it 
is well known that the Government of this country, aaing, as I 
believe, in accordance with the almost unanimous — or I may say 
the unanimous — feeling of the country, has maintained a strift 
and impartial neutrality. But, Sir, it was notorious, — and it 
could not in a great community like this be otherwise, — that dif- 
ferent opinions have been entertained by different persons with 
reo-ard to the question at issue between the Northern and the 
Southern States of America. And, while I believe that the sym- 
pathy of the majority of this country has been with the North, I 
wish to avoid any thing likely to excite dissent; therefore, while I 
say that different opinions have been entertained, and different 
sympathies felt, and in this free country the freest expression has 
been, as it ought to be, given to those sympathies and opinions, I 
am sure I shall not excite any difference of opinion when I add, 
that, in the presence of the great crime which has sent a thrill of 
horror through all who heard of it, those differences of opin- 
ion and those confliaing sentiments have been suppressed. I 
entertain the strongest confidence, that it will be regarded by 
every man of position in the Southern States with the same de- 
gree of horror as it has been in other parts of the world. What- 
ever our opinions may be with respea to the past, whatever may 
have been our sympathies, we should all cordially unite in ex- 
pressing our abhorrence of this crime, and in tendering our sym- 
pathy to the nation which is now mourning the loss of its chosen 
and trusted Chief, struck down by the hand of an assassin at a 
most critical period of its history. While deploring the war, 
while lamenting the loss of life which has been its inevitable con- 
sequence, it is impossible, whatever our sympathies may have 
been, to withhold our admiration of the many gallant deeds which 
have'been performed, — those aas of heroism which have been 
displayed by both parties in that contest. And it is a matter of 

37 



290 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letter's. 

bitter refle6lion, that the page of history which will record those 
gallant achievements — the deeds of men who have shed their 
blood and laid down their lives — should be stained by the record 
of a crime such as we are now deploring. A new era seemed at 
hand; the time had come when there was reason to hope that the 
war might speedily be brought to a close. Victory had crowned 
the efforts of the statesmen and of the armies of the Federals; 
and all of us entertained a feelino- of relief on being: able to turn 
from the records of so sanguinary a contest to the correspondence 
which had recently passed between the generals commanding the 
hostile armies. I know that Mr. Lincoln, as President of the 
United States, warranted the hope, I may say expe6tation, — and I 
have reason to believe, that that expe6lation would not have been 
disappointed, — that in the hour of vi6lory, and in the triumph of 
vi6lory, he would have shown that wise forbearance, and that 
generous consideration, which would have added tenfold lustre to 
the fame that he had already acquired, amidst the varying fortunes 
of the war. Unhappily we have not had the opportunity of real- 
izing those expectations. But let us hope that the good sense 
and right feeling of those upon whom the discharge of those ardu- 
ous and difficult duties in this conjuncture of affairs has devolved 
will, in addition to their sense of respe6f and veneration, lead 
them to a6l in the same spirit, and follow the same counsels 
which, we have good reason to believe, would have guided the 
conduct of Mr. Lincoln, had he been left to complete the work 
which he had begun. 

Sir, — I believe I am expressing the general opinion when I 
sa}^, that nothing could give greater satisfaction to this country 
than to see, by firmness mixed with conciliation, the union of the 
North and the South again accomplished; especially if it can 
be accomplished by common consent, and free from that which 
has been the weakness of all nations, — the curse and disgrace 
of slavery. 



Sir George Grey. 291 



Sir, — I wish it were possible for us to convey to the people 
of the United States an adequate idea of the depth and univer- 
sality of the feeling which this sad event has occasioned in this 
country. From the highest to the lowest there has been but one 
feeling entertained. Her Majesty's Minister at Washington will, 
in obedience to the Queen's commands, convey to the Govern- 
ment of the United States an expression of the feelings of Her 
Majesty, and of Her Majesty's Government, on this deplorable 
event. And Her Majesty, with that tender consideration which 
she has always evinced for the sorrows and sufferings of others, 
in whatever rank and station, has, with her own hand, written a 
letter to Mrs. Lincoln, conveying the heartfelt sympathy of a 
widow to a widow, suffering from an overwhelming calamity that 
has so suddenly come upon her. From every part of this coun- 
try, and from every class of the community, one voice is now 
raised, — a voice of abhorrence at the crime, and of sympathy 
and interest in that countr}^ which has this great loss to mourn. 
The British residents in the United States have met, as may have 
been expected, to express their feelings against the crime commit- 
ted; and we read that our British North-American Colonies are 
vieing with each other to give expression to the same sentiments 
of sympathy. And not only is it from men of that race which is 
connected with the inhabitants of the United States by the tie of 
origin, language, and blood, that a feeling of this kind arises; but 
I believe that every country in Europe is giving expression to 
the same sentiments, and sending them to the Government of the 
United States. But I am sure, therefore, I am not wrong in an- 
ticipating, that this House, in the name of the people of England, 
of the people of Scotland, and of the people of Ireland, will be 
anxious to record its expression of the same sentiments and feel- 
ings to the Government of the United States. Of this I am con- 
fident, that this House could never more fully and never more 



292 



Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 



adequately represent the feelings of the people of this United 
Kingdom than by agreeing to the address which it is now, Sir, my 
duty to move, expressing to Her Majesty our sorrow and indigna- 
tion at the assassination of the President of the United States, 
and praying Her Majesty, in conveying her own sentiments to the 
Government of that country upon this deplorable event, that she 
will express at the same time upon the part of this House their 
abhorrence of the crime, and their sympathy with the Govern- 
ment and the people of the United States, in the deep affliction 
into which they have been plunged. 

I^ondon Daily News, May 2, 1S65. 




LETTER FROM JOHN STUART MILL; 



TO A FRIEND IN PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



Avignon, May 13, 1865. 

DEAR SIR. — I had scarcely received your note of April 8, 
so full of calm joy in the splendid prospe6l now opening to 
your country, and through it to the world, when the news came 
that an atrocious crime had struck down the great citizen who had 
afforded so noble an example of the qualities befitting the first 
magistrate of a free people, and who, in the most trying circum- 
stances, had graduall}^ won, not only the admiration, but almost 
the personal affe6tion of all who love freedom or appreciate 
simplicity and uprightness. But the loss is ours, not his. It was 
impossible to have wished him a better end, than to add the crown 
of martyrdom to his other honors, and to live in the memory of a 
great nation as those only live who have not only labored for their 
country, but died for it. And he did live to see the cause tri-- 
umphant, and the contest virtually over. How different would 
our feelings now be if this fate had overtaken him, as it might so 
easily have done, a month sooner! 

In England, horror of the crime, and sympathy with your loss, 
seem to be almost universal, even among those who have dis- 
graced their country by wishing success to the slaveholders. I 
hope the manifestations which were instantaneously made there 



294 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 

in almost every quarter may be received in America as some kind 
of atonement, or peace offering. I have never believed that there 
was any real danger of a quarrel between the two countries; but 
it is of immense importance that we should be firm friends: and 
this is our natural state; for, though there is a portion of the higher 
and middle classes of Great Britain who so dread and hate 
democracy that they cannot wish prosperity and power to a 
democratic people, I sincerel}" believe that this feeling is not 
general, even in our privileged classes. INIost of the dislike and 
suspicion which have existed towards the United States were the 
effe6t of pure ignorance, — ignorance of your histor}^, and igno- 
rance of your feeling and disposition as a people. It is difficult 
for you to believe that this ignorance could be as dense as it 
really was. But the late events have begun to dissipate it; and, 
if 3'our Government and people a6t as I fully believe they will 
in regard to the important questions which now await them, there 
will be no fear of their being ever again so grossly misunderstood, 
at least in the lives of the present generation. 

As to the mode of dealing with these great questions, it does 
not become a foreigner to advise those who know the exigencies 
of the case so much better than he does. But as so many of my 
countrymen are volunteering advice to 3'ou at this crisis, perhaps 
I ma}' be forgiven if I offer mine the contrary way. Every one 
is eagerl}^ inculcating gentleness, and only gentleness, as if 3'ou 
' had shown any signs of a disposition to take a savage revenge. I 
have alwavs been afraid of one thing only, — that }'ou Avould be too 
gentle. I should be sorry to see an}' life taken after the war is over 
(except those of the assassins), or any evil inflifted in mere 
vengeance; but one thing I hope will be considered absolutely ne- 
cessary, — to break altogether the power of the sl^veholding caste. 
Unless this is done, the abolition of slavery will be merely nominal. 
If an aristocracy of ex-slaveholders remain masters of the State 



John Stuart Mill. 295 

Legislatures, they will be able effe6lually to nullify a great part 
of the result which has been so dearly bought by the blood of the 
Free States. They and their dependants must be effectually out- 
numbered at the polling places; which can only be effe6led by 
the concession of full equality of political rights to negroes, and 
by a large immigration of settlers from the North: both of them 
being made independent by the ownership of land. With these 
things, in addition to the Constitutional Amendment (which will 
enable the Supreme Court to set aside any State legislation tend- 
ing to bring back slavery in disguise), the cause of freedom is 
safe, and the opening words of the Declaration of Independence 
will cease to be a reproach to the nation founded by its authors. 

I am, dear sir, yours very truly, 

J. S. MILL. 




RESOLUTION OF HON. F. H. MORSE, 



UNITED-STATES CONSUL FOR LONDON : 
AT A MEETING OF AMERICANS, HELD IN THAT CITY, MAY I, 1 865. 



THAT we have heard with the greatest indignation, and 
the most profound sorrow, of the assassination which has 
deprived our country of its beloved Chief Magistrate, as well 
as of the murderous assault which has greatly perilled the lives 
of the Secretary and Assistant-Secretary of State; and that we 
regard the taking of the life of our chief executive officer, while 
our country is passing through unparalleled trials, after all loyal 
Americans had learned to love him, and all good men the 
world over to confide in him, and when so much of national 
and individual welfare and happiness depended on his exist- 
ence, as the great crime of the nineteenth century, memorable 
in its atrocity, and entailing on its perpetrators the execration 
of mankind.'' He denounced the assassination in terms of ap- 
propriate indignation, and paid a warm tribute to the memory of 
President Lincoln, who, he said, had fought not only for the 
maintenance of the Union, but had struggled wisely and success- 
fully to wipe out the one black stain from his country's banner, 
slavery. He worked the point little by little, until he had brought 
the country up to a state of feeling which had resulted in the pro- 
hibition of slavery throughout the length and breadth of the 
American land. And it was after the war was virtuall}^ over, 
when Richmond had capitulated, and the surrender of the gener- 
alissimo of the South, with the elite of the rebel army, and when 



Hon. F. H. Morse. 2<^'] 



Abraham Lincoln was engaged in the work of reconstru6lion, — 
the first step in which he had so successfully carried, — that he 
was stricken down by the hands of the assassin. But the princi- 
ples of Mr. Lincoln as the successful champion had not died with 
him. They would be carried out by his successor. He (Mr. 
Morse) had long been intimately acquainted with Andrew John- 
son, and could, from personal knowledge, refute the calumnies 
which had gone forth against his chara6ler. Twenty years ago, 
he entered the Congress of the United States, a young man, with 
Andrew Johnson, then a representative for Tennessee. That was 
in 1844. He sat upon a committee with Andrew Johnson for 
two years, meeting three or four times a week; and subsequently, 
during three or four years, he had a6led with him up to the year 
1 86 1, and all that time he never heard one word whispered 
against his fair fame. He had seen him day by day, and knew 
him well, and could safely assert, that the charge of habitual in- 
temperance against him was one of the vilest and most unfounded 
slanders that had ever been cast on man. There was no need of 
the slightest mistrust in that noble-minded man, who had thus, 
by the force of his chara6ter and of his talents, raised himself 
from the lowest ranks of the people up to the highest position in 
the nation. His antecedents were a sufficient guarantee for his 
future condu(?t:. If ever the hand of Providence had been seen in 
guiding a nation in its great trials, it was in the events which had 
marked the history of America during the last four years; and 
they might rest assured that that divine Hand would not fail them 
now, — that it would not place at the head of the Government a 
man to undo all that had been done. It was the will of Heaven 
to deprive them of their beloved and well-tried chief magistrate, 
and to appoint another to carry out the good work which he had 
so successfully commenced; it was their duty to bow to that will 
in all humility and in all confidence. 

38 



SPEECH OF LORD JOHN RUSSELL: 



THE HOUSE OF LORDS, LONDON, MAY I. l86c;. 



MY LORDS, — I rise to ask Your Lordships to address Her 
Majesty, pra^'ing Her Majesty, that, in any communication 
she may be pleased to make, expressing her abhorrence of the 
great crime which has been committed in America by the assas- 
sination of President Lincohi, Her Majesty may at the same time 
be pleased to express the sorrow and indignation felt by us at the 
great crime which has recently been committed. My Lords, — Her 
Majesty has already dire6ted me to express to the Government of 
the United States the shock which she felt when the intelligence 
reached this country of this great crime, and also of her sympathy 
with the Government and people of the United States. Her 
Majest}^ also has been pleased to write a private letter to INIrs. 
Lincoln, expressing her sympathy with her on her great and sud- 
den bereavement. I think Your Lordships will agree with me in 
saying, that in modern times there has hardly been any crime of 
so horrible a chara6ter committed. President Lincoln had been 
legally elected President of that great Republic; and, after the 
secession of a part of the States, he was re-ele6led President by 
the large majorit}^ of those States which remained faithful. He 
bore his honors meekly; and he was in the discharge of his func- 
tions at the very moment when the assassin attacked him in the 
theatre, — where he had gone, in order to please the people of 



Lord John Russell. 299 



Washington. There he was foully murdered. There are cir- 
cumstances conne6ted with this crime which, I think, aggravate 
its guilt. President Lincoln was a man who, although he had 
not been distinguished before his eleaion, had from that time dis- 
played a charaaer of so much integrity, sincerity, and straight- 
forwardness, and, at the same time, of so much kindness, that, if 
any one could have been able to alleviate the pain and animosity 
which have prevailed during the civil war, I believe President 
Lincoln was the man to have done so. It was remarked of him, 
that he always felt indisposed to resort to any harsh or severe 
measures ; and I am told that the commanders of the army often 
complained, that, when they passed a sentence which they con- 
ceived to be no more than just, the President was always sure to 
temper its severity. Such was the man required for this particu- 
lar moment. The conduft of the armies of the United States was 
intrusted to other hands; and upon, these commanders fell chiefly 
the responsibility of conducing those armies in the field, and 
making them successful against those with whom they contended. 
But the moment had come when those armies were vidlorious; 
and no doubt the reputation of President Lincoln was greatly 
increased by the success of those armies. But, though it was not 
for him to lead those armies, it would have been his to temper 
the pride of viaory, to assuage the misfortunes which had been 
felt, and especially to show, which he was well qualified to show, 
that respea for valor on the opposite side which had been so 
conspicuously displayed; and President Lincoln, I think, showed 
by the orders he gave to the commanders, that he was well quali- 
fied for that office. It was by such qualities, it was to be hoped, 
that when the conflia of arms was over, that task of concilia- 
tion might have been begun; and President Lincoln had an au- 
thority which no one else had, to temper that exasperation which 
always happens in civil strife. Upon another question, the United 



300 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 

States, and those against whom they had lately been in arms, will 
have a most difficult task to perform, — I allude to the question of 
slavery, which, according to many, had been the cause of the civil 
war in America. At the beginning of this war, the House will 
remember. President Lincoln declared that he had no right by 
the Constitution to interfere with slavery. At a later period, he 
made a kind of decree as Commander-in-chief, in which he pro- 
posed, that, in certain States, the slaves should be entirely freed. 
But, at a later period, he proposed that which he was constitution- 
ally qualified to propose, — that there should be an alteration of 
the Constitution of the United States, by which the holding of 
persons to labor by compulsory means was to be for ever hereafter 
forbidden. Many persons were eager for the immediate abolition 
of slavery. But I remember Lord Macaulay once observing, that 
although it would have been a great blessing if the penal laws 
against Roman Catholics had been abolished in Sir R. Walpole's 
time, yet he would have been mad to have proposed such a mea- 
sure. So with regard to President Lincoln. Whatever might 
have been the horrors of slavery, I believe he was perfectly justi- 
fied in delaying the time when that great alteration in the law 
should be proposed. But, whatever we may think on this subje6l, 
we must all feel that there again the death of President Lincoln 
deprives the United States of the man who was the leader on this 
subje6l, and the man who, by his temper, would have been dis- 
posed to propose such measures as might make this great change 
acceptable to those by whom he had been elefted, and who might 
have preserved the peace of that great Republic under an entirely 
new Constitution. 

My Lords, — I think we must all feel sympathy with the 
United States on this deprivation, and also hope that he who 
succeeds, according to the American Constitution, to the powers 
of the late President, may be able, both in respe6t of mercy and 



Lord John Russell. 301 



lenity to those' who have been conquered, and also in respe6l to 
those measures to be adopted for that new organization, that the 
abolition of slaver}^ requires, — we must all hope that the new 
president may succeed in overcoming those difficulties, and in 
restoring the Republic to its pristine prosperity. I had, at the 
commencement of this contest, occasion to say, that I did not be- 
lieve that that great Republic would perish in the contest; and 
my noble friend at the head of the Government had lately occa- 
sion to disclaim any feeling of animosity or envy at the greatness 
and prosperity of the United States. The course which Her Maj- 
jesty's Government pursued during this civil war has been one of 
neutrality. There have been difficulties which have occurred to 
us, there have been difficulties which have occurred to the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, in maintaining the peaceful rela- 
tions of the two countries; but these difficulties have always been 
treated with temper and moderation on both sides of the Atlantic. 
I trust that temper and moderation will continue : and I can as- 
sure this House, that, as we have always been actuated by the 
wish that the American Government and the American people 
should settle their differences without any interference of ours in 
the conflift of arms, so, likewise, during the attempt that will be 
made to restore peace and tranquillity to that country, we must 
equally refrain from any kind of interference or intervention; and 
we shall trust that the efforts to be made for that purpose will be 
successful, and that that great Republic will continue to enjoy its 
career of freedom. I have nothing, of course, to say of the suc- 
cessor of President Lincoln. Time must show how far he is able 
to condu6l those difficult matters which the wisdom of his prede- 
cessor was so well calculated to bring to a satisfaftory result. 
All I can say is, that, in sight of this great calamity, in sight of this 
^reat crime, the Crown, the Parliament, and the people of this 
country, feel not only the deepest sympathy with the Government 



302 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 

and people of the United States, but that our relations of kindred 
with them induce us to feel the misfortunes of the United States 
more than we should the misfortunes of any country on the face 
of the globe. The noble lord concluded by moving that an hum- 
ble address be presented to Her Majesty, expressing the sorrow 
and indignation of that House at the assassination of the President 
of the United States; and praying Her Majesty to communicate 
these sentiments on the part of that House to the Government of 
the United States. 





P^:cSS^^feifc^^^ 






LETTER FROM PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON DAILY NEWS. 



SIR, — It is difficult to measure the calamity which the United 
States and the world have sustained by the murder of Presi- 
dent Lincoln. The assassin has done his best to strike down 
mercy and moderation, of both of which this good and noble life 
was the main stay. It is impossible not to feel great misgivings 
as to the turn which this murder may give, politically and morally, 
to the course of events. No doubt the powers of evil of all 
kinds will see their advantage in it. But I have the greatest 
and most unfeigned confidence in the good sense, the humanity, 
the self-control, the law-loving and constitutional chara6ler of the 
American people. 

The loss of Mr. Seward also, if he is killed, is much to be 
lamented, strange as the assertion may seem to those who, with- 
out knowing any thing of the man, or candidly watching his course, 
have gone on from day to day repeating the accustomed scoffs 
and denunciations. Under trying circumstances, and notwith- 
standing great provocation, he has honorably labored to keep 
the peace. The world will be fortunate if his successor does the 
same. 

My obje6l in writing to you, however, is not to deplore what 
is irreparable, but to second you in deprecating exaggerated 
assumptions and extravagant language as to the character and 



304 Eulogies^ Speeches, and Letters. 

probable condu6l of Mr. Lincoln's constitutional successor. The 
accession of Andrew Johnson to the presidency will be received 
with almost as much misgiving in America as here; and the mind 
of the American people is no doubt by this time at work as to the 
best means of obviating the danger to the State which this event 
may entail. Should necessity arise, means of securing the public 
interest will be found; though, in a nation so attached to constitu- 
tional forms, no unconstitutional expedient will be resorted to till 
the resources of the Constitution have been exhausted. 

Even if it were clear that Andrew Johnson were no better 
than a Marat or a Masaniello, the Americans are not a Parisian 
or a Neapolitan mob: they are an educated nation, trained to 
political a6lion, and capable, by their united intelligence and 
practical resources, of meeting almost any emergency, as the 
events of the war have shown. But it is quite premature to 
assume that Johnson when in power will turn out a Marat or a 
Masaniello. An American politician (and the same thing may 
be said of the politicians in our colonies) may be very rough, 
even coarse; and yet he may have in him sterling stuff, which 
power and responsibility may bring to light. Lincoln himself 
was originally a rough man; and if we had looked only to certain 
parts of his early writings and speeches, we might have despaired 
of his becoming the worthy ruler of a great nation. 

At his inauguration, Andrew Johnson, under the joint influ- 
ence, it appears, of great excitement and drink, behaved in a way 
which shocked his countrymen as much as it did us. But we 
ought not to forget that Pitt was once, at least, seen the worse for 
liquor in the House of Commons; and that, if current tradition 
does not deceive us, a speech was made by a very eminent mem- 
ber of the House of Lords, in the debate on the Reform Bill, 
which showed that the speaker was not under the influence of 
political excitement alone. This incident seems to me less seri- 



Professor Goldwin Smith. 30^ 



ous than the arbitrary proceedings of which Johnson has more 
than once been guilty in Tennessee, and which appear to betray 
a chara6ler prone to violence, — the thing most of all to be depre- 
cated and dreaded at the present junfture. 

But Tennessee, where a desperate confli6l has been going on 
between the secessionists and Union parties, and where Union men, 
Johnson himself among the number, have undergone every kind 
of outrage at the hands of their opponents, is the land of violence; 
and it is not to be assumed that a man would behave everywhere 
as he would behave there. High position and heavy responsi- 
bilities have sometimes a great effe6l in moderating and elevating 
the character, especiall}^ among the class of rough, strong men 
to whom I think it very probable the new President belongs. I 
shall not despair, till fa6ts compel me, of seeing him, in his new 
dignity, mend his manners, throw oft' his Tennessean animosities, 
behave as becomes his station, and tread, to the best of his ability, 
both at home and abroad, in the steps of the truly great man (for 
so, though in an unimposing form, Lincoln was), into whose 
place he has been unexpectedly called. 

His first speech seems to promise well. I do not mean to 
underrate the gravity of the accident, which, at this crisis, substi- 
tutes, for a representative of the shrewd and kindly West, a man 
chosen to what seemed an office of little importance by way of 
tribute to the Unionist martyrs of the violent and stabbing South. 
I only wish to avoid aggravating evil (as we well may) by antici- 
pation; and, at any rate, to aid in airesting, if possible, the flood 
of dangerous vituperation which is ready to flow from the pens of 
a portion of our press. These journalists have just had as tre- 
mendous a lesson on their own fallibility as the severity of destiny 
could read them; and they could scarcely select a more danger- 
ous moment than the present for another exhibition of theii 
temperance and discretion. 

39 



3o6 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

The Senate, the House of Eepresentatives, the Supreme 
Court, all have in their hands powers of restraining the a6tion of 
the Executive; w^hich, especially in the case of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, increase in effectiveness in proportion 
as the personal influence of the President over the nation dimin- 
ishes. The army is in the hands of Grant, who has been styled 
by journalistic omniscience a "butcher," as Lincoln was styled a 
"Robespierre," but who is in fa6l an American Duke of Welling- 
ton, as straightforward and simple in character, as modest, as 
devoid of irregular ambition, as little likely to swerve from the 
stri6l path of military or civil duty; while his recent treatment of 
Lee and the captured army shows that he knows well how to 
behave to a vanquished enemy. 

I am, &c., 
April 27. GOLDWIN SMITH. 

P.S. — "Now that INIr. Lincoln is dead," says a virulent Tory 
journal, " his good qualities seem to come to the foreground." 
And why, let me ask in the name of common honest}'^ and verac- 
ity, did they not " come to the foreground " at the time when they 
were being displayed? In the same article, I find the new Presi- 
dent belabored with all the aristocratic epithets bestowed till 
yesterday on his predecessor, with an unthinking repetition of the 
impudent falsehood originated by the "Times," that he proposed 
"to hang the Southern leaders as high as Haman." Thus slander 
leaves the dead, with a hypocritical tribute to the virtues it has 
maligned, only to fix upon the living. 

London Daily Ne-vs., April 26, 1865. 



SPEECH OF SR. REBELLO DA SILVA: 



DELIVERED IN THE CHAMBER OF PEERS, LISBON, PORTUGAL. 



MR. PRESIDENT, — I desire to offer to the Chamber some 
observations on a subject I deem most grave, for the 
purpose of introducing a motion which I intend to lay upon 
the table. 

The Chamber has been made aware, by the official documents 
in the foreign journals, that a flagrant outrage has recently 
covered with mourning a great nation beyond the Atlantic, — the 
powerful Republic of the United States. 

President Lincoln has been assassinated in the theatre, almost 
in the arms of his wife! 

The perpetration of so foul a deed has caused the deepest 
grief in America, and throughout all the courts of Europe. Cab- 
inets and parliaments have evinced the most universal sorrow at 
an event so grievous. 

It belongs to civilized communities, it becomes almost a duty 
with all constituted political bodies, to accompany their manifes- 
tations with the sincere expression of horror at a6ts and crimes 
so infamous. 

Through a fatality, or a sublime disposition or unfathomable 
mystery of Providence, — which is the more Christian interpre- 
tation of history, — it often happens, not only in the life of nations, 



3o8 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

but in that of individuals, when the loftiest heights have been 
reached, the boldest destinies fulfilled, even the last degrees of 
human greatness attained; when the way is suddenly made smooth, 
and the horizon casts off its clouds and shadows, and smiles 
flooded with light, — that then an unseen hand is lifted in the 
darkness, that a power, secret and inexorable, is armed in silence, 
and, waving the dagger of Brutus, pointing the cannon of Wel- 
lington, or offering the poisoned cup of Asiatic herbs, hurls the 
conqueror, crowned with laurels, from his height, at the feet ot 
Pompe37's statue, like Caesar; at the feet of fortune, weary with 
following him, like Napoleon; at the feet of the Colossus of 
irritated Rome, like Hannibal. 

The mission of great men and heroes makes them seem to us 
almost like demigods; for they receive for a moment from on 
High the omnipotence which revolutionizes societies and trans- 
figures nations: they pass, like tempests, in their car of fire, to 
see themselves dashed at last in an instant against the eternal 
barriers of the impossible, — barriers which no one can remove, 
where they all find the pride of their ephemeral power reduced 
to nought, and humbled to the dust, — for immutable and great 
alone is God. Death overtakes them, or ruin reaches them, in 
their apogee, to show to princes, to conquerors, and to people, 
that their hour is one onl}^ and short; that their work is fragile, as 
the work of man, so soon as the pillar of fire which guided thein 
is extinguished, and night falls upon their way: the new paths 
they had opened for themselves, and through which they thought 
to pass boldly and secure, become gulfs which open and swallow 
them, when, as instruments of the designs of the Most High, the 
days of their empire and their enterprise shall have been counted 
and finished. 

Thus is seen a terrible example, a memorable lesson, in the 
catastrophe of the most noted characters of histor}^ So come to 



Sr. Re be Ho da Silva. 309 



us to-day, stained with the illustrious blood of one of its most 
honored citizens, the recent pages of the annals of the powerful 
Republic of the United States. Its President, when the first 
quadrennium was closed of a government in which strife was his 
heritage, falls suddenly, struck down before his own triumph; and 
from his cold and powerless hands escape loosely the reins of an 
administration, which the perseverance and energy of his will, 
the co-operation of his fellow-citizens, and the loftiness and pres- 
tige of the great idea he symbolized and defended, have made 
immortal with a name proclaimed by millions of voices and 
votes, on the fields of battle and in the assemblies of the people. 
Recondu6led, elevated a second time on the shields of popular 
favor, to the supreme dire6lion of affairs, at the moment when the 
heat of civil strife was appeased, when the union of that vast, 
dilacerated body gave promise, in its restoration, to bind up the 
wounds through which, for so many months, flowed in torrents 
the generous blood of the free, almost in the arms of victory, 
surrounded by those who most loved him, in the bosom of his 
popular court, he suddenly encounters death; and the ball of an 
obscure fanatic closes and seals the golden book of his destinies, 
at the moment, too, when every prosperity seemed to welcome 
him to length of days and festive favor. 

It is not a king who disappears in the obscurity of the tomb, 
burying with him, like Henry IV., the future of vast plans; it is 
the Chief of a glorious people, who leaves behind him as many 
successors as there are abettors of his idea, co-operators in his 
noble and well-aimed aspirations. The purple of a throne is not 
covered with mourning, the heart of a great empire is shrouded 
in grief The cause, of which he was the strenuous champion, 
did not die with him; but all wept for his loss, through their hor- 
ror of the deed and the occasion, and through the hopes founded 
on his pure and benevolent motives. 



3IO Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

Lincoln, martyr to the broad principle which he represented 
in power and struggle, belongs now to history and to posterity. 
Like Washington, whose idea he continued, his name will be 
inseparable from the memorable epochs to which he is bound, 
and which he expresses. If the Defender of Independence freed 
America, Lincoln unsheathed, without hesitation, the sword of 
the Republic; and with its point erased and tore out, from the 
statutes of a free people, the anti-social stigma, the anti-humani- 
tarian blasphemy, the sad, shameful, infamous codicil of old 
societies, — the dark, repugnant abuse of slavery, which Jesus 
Christ first condemned from the top of the cross, proclaiming the 
equality of man before God; which nineteen centuries of civiliza- 
tion, reared in the gospel, have proscribed and reje6led as the 
opprobrium of our times. 

At the moment when he was breaking the chains of a luck- 
less race; when he was seeing in millions of rehabilitated slaves 
millions of future citizens; when the bronze voice of Grant's 
vi6lorious cannon was proclaiming the emancipation of the soul, 
of the conscience, and of toil; when the scourge was about to 
fall from the hands of the scourgers; when the ancient slave- 
pen was about to be transformed, for the captive, into a domestic 
altar; at the moment when the stars of the Union, sparkling and 
resplendent with the golden fires of liberty, were weaving over 
the subdued walls of Petersburg and Richmond, — the sepulchre 
opens, and the strong, the powerful, enters it. In the midst of 
triumphs and acclamations, there appeared to him a spe6lre, like 
that of Caesar, in the Ides of March, saying to him, " You have 
lived." 

Far be it from me to approve or condemn the civil strife which 
divides and covers with blood two brother se6lions of the Amer- 
ican people. I am neither their judge nor their censor. I honor 
the principle of liberty, wherever cherished and maintained; but 



Sr. Rebello da Silva. 311 



I can also honor and admire another principle, not less sacred and 
glorious, — that of independence. May the progressive virtue of 
our age re-unite those whom discord has divided, and reconcile 
ideas which are in the hearts and aspirations of all generous 
souls. 

In this struggle, which in magnitude exceeds all w^e have seen 
or heard of in Europe, the vanquished of to-day are worthy of 
the great race from which they sprang. Lee and Grant are two 
giants, whom history will keep inseparable. But the hour of 
peace is perchance about to strike. Lincoln desired it as the 
crown of his labors, the glorious result of so many sacrifices. 
After force, let there be forbearance; after the brave fury of bat- 
tles, the fraternal embrace of citizens. 

These were the motives which governed him, these the last 
virtuous desires he entertained; and it is at this moment (per- 
chance a rare one), when a great soul is so potent for good, 
when a single mind is worth whole legions, as a pacificator, that 
the hand of an assassin is raised in treachery, and cuts the thread 
of plans and purposes so lofty and so noble. 

If the American nation were not a people tried in the experi- 
ences and strifes of government, could any one perchance calculate 
the fatal consequences of this sudden blow? Who knows if the 
conflagration of civil war would not have spread to the remotest 
confines of these Federal States, in all the pomp of its horrors ? 
Happil}^, it will not be so. While public opinion and the journals 
condemn the deed severely and justly, and their horror is excited 
against the fatal crime, — sentiments which are those of all civil- 
ized Europe, — they give honorable heed to ideas of peace and 
forbearance, as though the great man who advocated these ideas 
had not disappeared from the arena of the world. And I use the 
term advisedly, ^^ great maii^^ for he is truly great who rises to 
the loftiest heights from profound obscurity, relying solely on his 



312 Etilogies, Speeches^ and Letters. 

own merits, — as did Napoleon, Washington, Lincoln. For these 
arose to power and greatness, not through any favor or grace of 
a chance-cradle, or genealogy, but through the prestige of their 
own deeds, through the nobility which begins and ends with 
themselves, — the sole offspring of their own works. He is more 
to be envied who makes himself great and famous through his 
genius and deeds, than he who is born with hereditary titles. 

Lincoln was of this privileged class: he belonged to this 
aristocracy. In infancy, his energetic soul was nourished by 
poverty. In youth, he learned through toil the love of liberty, 
and respeft for the rights of man. Even to the age of twenty- 
two, educated in adversity, his hands made callous by honorable 
labor, he rested from the fatigues of the field, spelling out, in the 
pages of the Bible, in the lessons of the gospel, in the fugitive 
leaves of the daily journal, — which the' Aurora opens, and the night 
disperses, — the first rudiments of instru6tion, which his solitary 
meditations ripened. Little by little, light was infused into that 
spirit, the wings put forth and grew strong with which he flew. 
The chrysalis felt one day the ray of the sun, which called it to 
life, broke its involucrum, and it launched forth fearlessl}' from the 
darkness of its humble cloister into the luminous spaces of its 
destiny. The farmer, day-laborer, shepherd, like Cincinnatus, 
left the ploughshare in the half-broken furrow, and, legislator of 
his own State, and afterwards of the Great Republic, saw himself 
proclaimed in the tribunal the popular chief of many millions of 
people, the maintainer of the holy principle inaugurated by Wil- 
berforce. What strife, what scenes of agitation, what a series of 
herculean labors and incalculable sacrifices, were not involved 
and represented in the glory of their results, during these four 
years of war and government! Armies in the field, such as, since 
the remotest periods, there has been no example! Huge bat- 
tles, which saw the sun rise and set, twice or thrice, without 



Sr. Re be Ho da Silva. 3 1 3 



vi6tory inclining to the one or the other side: marches, in which 
thousands of vi6tims, whole legions, piled with the dead each 
fragment of the conquered earth: assaults which, in audacity and 
slaughter, reduce to insignificance the exploits of Attila and the 
Huns ! 

What stupendous obsequies for the scourge of slavery! 
What a lesson, terrible and salutary, from a great people, still 
rich and vigorous with youth, to the timid vacillations of old 
Europe, before a destiny contested by principles so sacred! 

These were the monuments, the million marks, of his career. 
If the sword was in his hands the instrument, and libert}^ the 
inspiration and strength, of his efforts, he was not unfaithful to 
them. Above the thorns in his path, through the tears and blood 
of so many holocausts, he was able at last to see the promised 
land. It was not vouchsafed to him to plant therein, in expiation, 
the auspicious olive-tree of concord. When he was about to 
re-unite the broken bcHid of the Union; when he was about to in- 
fuse anew the life-giving spirit of free institutions into the body 
of the country, its scattered and bloody members rejoined and 
re-cemented; when the standard of the Republic, the funereal 
clamors silenced, and the agonies of pride and defeat consoled, 
was about to be again raised, covering with its glorious folds all 
the children of the same common soil, purified from the indelible 
stain of slavery, — the athlete reels, and falls in the arena, show- 
ing that he, too, was but a mortal. 

I deem this sketch sufficient. The Chamber, through inclina- 
tion, through a sense of duty, through its institution, not only 
conservative, but as the faithful guardian of traditions and princi- 
ples, will not be, surely will not desire to be, backward in joining 
in the manifestations which the eledive House has just voted, 
co-operating with the enlightened cabinets and parliaments of 
Europe. Silence in the presence of such outrages belongs only 

40 



3 T 4 2LdiJ<}£7.es^ S/wec^s„ ami Iwi^rrs, 



to senates dumb and disinherited of all high sentiments and aspi- 
rations. 

Voting this motion, the Chamber of Peers associates itself in 
the grief of all civilized nations. The crime which shortened the 
days of President Lincoln, mart\T to the great principles in 
which our age most glories, is almost, is in essence, a regicide; 
and a monarchical country cannot refrain from detesting and 
condemning it. 

The descendants of those who tii-st revealed to the Europe oi 
the sixteenth century the new way, which, through the barriers 
of stormy and unkno\\Ti seas, opened the gates of the kingdom of 
the Aurora, will not be the last to bend over the gravestone of a 
great magistrate, who was like\\*ise the guide of his people through 
fearful tempests, and who succeeded in conducting them triumph- 
anth' to the overthrow of the last vestige of the citadel of slavery. 
To each epoch and its people, its task and its meed of glory; to 
each illustrious hero, his crown of laurel, or his civic crown. 

Translated for ike Christian Jfe^ister. Boston. Av^jv-nt 12, 1S65. 




(V*^ 



lettp:r from dr. mpirle daubigxe 

AUTIfOE OF THE " HLSTOKY OF THE EEFOBMATIOX." 



THE New- York Evening " Post" rqxirts that Mr. Henr>' A. 
Stnythe, President of the Central National Bank of that 
citv% has received from George G. Fogg- American Minister to 
Switzerland, a letter of condolence addressed to Mr. Fogg by the 
author of the " Historj- of the Reformation," Mr. Fogg says,— 
" Of the raanv letters sent to me from the most eminent men in 
letters and science, I have thought that you, and other of our 
friends in America, would be interested in one from the great 
historian of the Reformation-" 

Gf3fr»'-*- April Tj, I%5- 

Monsieur le Mimstre, — At the moment ^iien our hearts 
were excited at die great deliverance which God has accorded 
for your people; at the moment when we were rendering thanks- 
giving to him, for putting an end in your noble country to the two 
greatest eWls with which humanity can be afflicted, — war and 
slavery.- a terrible news comes to change our jay into deepest 
mour^ng. The blow which has struck Mr. Lincohi strikes all 
the friends of justice, order, hTjerty, and religion- He has been 
"oment of God for Ae accomplishment of one of the 
^ .£ts. perhaps Ae very greatest, which wiU iUostrate our 



3i6 Eulogies^ Speeches, and Letters. 

century, — the definitive abolition of slavery throughout Christen- 
dom. He is not only the instrument, but the vi6lim. While not 
venturing to compare him v^nth the great sacrifice of Golgotha, 
which gave liberty to the captives, is it not just, in this hour, to 
recall the word of an apostle (i John, iii. i6) : "In this we have 
known love, in that Christ has laid down his life for us; and 
therefore ought we also to lay down our lives for our brethren." 
Who can say that the President did not lay down his life by the 
firmness of his devotion to a great duty? The name of Lincoln 
w^ill remain one of the greatest that history has to inscribe on its 
annals. 

Parricidal hands, in striking down the Chief of your people, 
have thought to be able thereby to arrest the great work he had 
commenced. But if men pass away, God remains. God, whose 
minister Lincoln was, will crown the work of peace, order, and 
liberty, which has cost this generous man a life so precious. We 
weep with you, my dear sir: but we hope also with you; and our 
hope shall not be deceived. Ma}^ God himself assuage the 
wounds of your people. May the aegis of his gospel restore to 
them union, harmony, peace, and prosperity. Among the lega- 
cies which Lincoln leaves to us, we shall all regard, as the most 
precious, his spirit of equity, of moderation, and of peace, accord- 
ing to which he will still preside, if I may so speak, over the 
restoration of your great nation. 

Excuse me, if I dare avail myself of the liberty you have 
given me on other occasions to correspond with you, in order to 
pray you to receive, in these painful circumstances, the expression 
of my condolence and of my profound respeft. 

MERLE D'AUBIGNE. 
To the Hon. George G. Fogg, Minister Resident 

of the United States of America in Switzerland. 



LETTER FROM THE DEMOCRATIC ASSOCIATION 

OF FLORENCE. 



To the Free People of the United .States oJ~ America. 

May i8, 1S65. 

BROTHERS OF THE AMERICAN UNION, — A few 
days have passed since your people prepared themselves to 
celebrate, in the decisive victory of Richmond, the proximate, in- 
fallible triumph of liberty and of the Union over servitude and 
division, when sad intelligence troubled the sincere joy of all the 
friends of liberty, and stopped on our lips the festive expressions 
of triumph, and our glad wishes for the future. 

Lincoln, the honest, the magnanimous, citizen, the most wor- 
thy chief magistrate of your glorious Federation, a victim of an 
execrable treason, is no more. 

The furies of despotism and of servitude, deceived in their 
infamous hopes, incapable of sustaining any longer their combat 
against liberty, before falling into the abyss which threatened 
them, strengthened the arm of a murderer; and as they opened 
the fratricidal war with the gibbet of the martyr of the cause of 
abolition, John Brown, so they ended it, w^orthy of themselves, in 
the most ferocious and stupid of all crimes, — the murder of a 
great citizen. 

Now, liberty, in stigmatizing the cause of her enemies, will 
have only to point out this deed, and the masses of the people 
everywhere cannot fail to remember that European despots have 



3i8 Etilogies, Speeches, and Letters. 



had a share in it; that in some courts of Europe, Mason, SHdell, 
and the infamous pirates of the " Alabama," found prote6tion and 
encouragement, and the wicked instigator of the civil war, Jeffer- 
son Davis, obtained praises and applause. 

Brothers of the American Union, — Courage ! The great 
cause for which you have supported four years of titanic com- 
bat is the cause of humanity; its triumph can never more be 
doubted, and has been delayed onl}^ for a moment by the worst of 
a6tions, committed by an abje6l murderer. 

Tyranny, it is true, could sometimes be destroyed by the mur- 
der of the tyrant, because it has life onl}^ in him; but liberty, 
which lives in the people, has, like the people, an immortal origin 
and destiny. 

For the Committee. 

(Signed) P. D. ANNIBALE, President. 

A. CORTI, Secretary. 



To the Democratic Associatio7i of Florence. 

United Consulate-General for the Kingdom of Italy, 

Florence, May 23, 1865. 

Gentlemen, — I have had the gratification of transmitting to 
my Government the address to the people of the United States, 
presented to me last week by your Association; and I have re- 
quested that this gratif^ang evidence of your sympathy and good 
feeling may be made known to my countrymen through the pub- 
lic journals. 

In the profound sorrow which the American nation has been 
called upon to endure through the death of our beloved Presi- 
dent, it is a source of the greatest consolation to know how highly 
his public a6ts were appreciated by the liberal citizens of all na- 
tions, and especially by those of Italy;, whose people have done 



T. B. Lawrence. 



319 



so much to prove their devotion to the great principles of free- 
dom. Italy, beyond any other nation, knows how to fraternize 
w^ith the United States ; for " Liberty and Union " have been 
alike the watchwords of the people of both countries. 

The history of your own renow^ned land proves that in a di- 
vided country liberty exists but in name. Your ancient republics 
were rivals to each other; and, while city took up arms against 
city, and family against family, the people were enslaved. 

Six centuries ago, your glorious poet, the immortal Dante (to 
whose fame 3^ou have just rendered a tribute and an homage 
worthy of his countrymen), with a divine inspiration, foresaw 
that in the union of Italy could real liberty only be found; and 
while his descendants of the nineteenth century are proving his 
dream to be a realit}^, the lesson conveyed by the past experience 
of Italy has not been lost upon the American nation. 

For the union of the States and the liberty of the people, the 
American war has been waged; and although in its prosecution 
blood has been shed like water, and treasure lavished without 
stint, yet we deem its vast cost as trifling in comparison with the 
grand result obtained in the preservation of our Union, and the 
enfranchising of four millions of slaves. 

Well, as in Italy you justly idolize the noble Garibaldi, as the 
paladin and hero of Italian emancipation; so we in America 
honor the martyr, Abraham Lincoln, as the Saviour of his Coun- 
try. Alike in their entire freedom from private or political sel- 
fishness; alike in their pure and spotless patriotism; alike in 
holding the first place in the hearts of their countrymen, — pos- 
terity will regard them as apostles of liberty, second to none that 
the annals of history record. 

I have the honor to be, gentlemen. 

Your obedient servant, 
(Signed) T. B. LAWRENCE, Consul- Ge?ieraL 



SPEECH OF EDOUARD LABOULAYE; 



ON THE DEATH OF MR. LINCOLN. 



THE murder of Mr. Lincoln has excited a profound emotion 
through all Europe. The atrocit}^ of such a cold-blooded 
murder; the honest}'' and innocence of the vi6lim; the death 
"which arrested, in the very midst of victory, the man who seemed 
to have conquered the right of finishing the work of pacification 
which he had so nobly begun, — explain but too well the universal 
sympathy in the presence of this cruel and unexpected end. 
Friends, enemies, "and indifferent persons, all to-day render full 
justice to the prudence, firmness, and moderation of Mr. Lincoln; 
all execrate the wretch who cut off so beautiful a life. Far from 
me be the thought of casting on the South the weight of such a 
crime. A people of soldiers is not a people of assassins; and I 
am not astonished that at the news of the assassination Lee was 
unable to resist his grief, and the brave Ewell wept like a child. 
War teaches us to respedl, and often even to love an enemy. 
But if I do not accuse the South, I accuse slavery, and the pas- 
sions which it lets loose. All those a6ts of violence, which, for 
forty years past, have disturbed America, and rejoiced those who 
hate liberty, — street duels, negroes burned alive, the beating of 
Mr. Sumner, the plots against Mr. Lincoln, — a'll these misdeeds 
have come from the same poisoned source: they have been 
brought forth by the pride of dominion. 



Edouard Laboulaye. 321 



Slavery ends as it began, by a crime. May this crime be the 
last! May this abominable institution, once more dishonored, 
disappear at last before the contempt and abhorrence of the hu- 
man race ! It would be the noblest homage that could be ren- 
dered to the memory of Lincoln. 

I shall not make the eulogy of the President: I have neither 
the time nor the strength; but I would like to recall some of his 
words and a6lions, and to show what was the unity and simplicity 
of his life. Death sets each one in his place : it plunges into for- 
p-etfulness those minions of fortune who have lived only to achieve 
their ambition, or to satisfy their wretched vanity; but it elevates 
the truly great men, and casts over these noble figures an inde- 
scribable splendor and serenity. Disdained and insulted yester- 
day, they are respe6led and admired on the morrow: they are 
more powerful in their tomb than in their palace. Mr. Lincoln 
was one of these heroes, who are ignorant of themselves; his 
thoughts will reign after him. The name of Washington has 
already been pronounced, and I think with reason. Doubtless 
Mr. Lincoln resembled Franklin more than Washington. By his 
origin, his arch good nature, his ironical good sense, and his love 
of anecdote and jesting, he was of the same blood as the printer of j^ 
Philadelphia. But it is nevertheless true, that, in less than a cen- 
tury, America has passed through two crises in which its liberty 
might have been lost, if it had not had honest men at its head ; 
and that each time it has had the happiness to meet the man 
best fitted to serve it. If Washington founded the Union, Lincoln 
has saved it. History will draw together and unite those two 

names. 

A single word explains Mr. Lincoln's whole life; it was duty. 
Never did he put himself forward; never did he think of himself; 
never did he seek one of those ingenious combinations which 
puts the head of a State in bold relief, and enhances his import- 

41 



322 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

ance at the expense of the country: his only ambition, his only 
thought, was faithfully to fulfil the mission which his fellow-citi- 
zens had intrusted to him. He wished to be the first magistrate 
of a Republic, neither more or less: always ready to hold cheap 
what affe6ted only himself; but always resolved to exa6l of each 
S' one that he should respeft the Constitution, and bow before the 
sovereignty of the laws. 

Hence arose in Mr. Lincoln that mixture of gentleness and 
firmness which is already found in his first speech, — his adieu to 
the little city of Springfield, where, as a lawyer, he had deserved 
the esteem and love of his fellow-citizens, and which he addressed 
to his friends who had followed him to the cars, February ii, 
1 86 1, as he was about to set out for Washington. 

Having reached Washington, — by foiling a plot laid by the 
partisans of slavery, — he addressed to Congress, March 4, 1861, 
a speech of finished wisdom. The Southerners, carried away by 
passion, and the wits of Europe, could not at that time find dis- 
dain or insults enough for this peasant, this wood-chopper, this 
mechanic, with ugly figure, rough hair, and large hands, who 
dared take his place in the Capitol; but, now that events have 
opened the blindest eyes, how just and sensible does this speech 
of a true patriot appear! How much blood and how many tears 
would have been spared, if men had listened to the voice of this 
good man! 

The President declared that he would insure respe6l to the 
Constitution. He was not charged with abolishing slavery; he 
was charged with maintaining the sovereignty of the Union, and 
the rights of the State. This mission he would fulfil to the end. 
Moreover, why separate? If a minority could secede from the 
majority, to-morrow a nucleus of malcontents might be formed in 
this minority which had become independent, and the conclusion 
of secession would be perpetual and incurable anarchy. 



Edotiard Laboiilaye. 323 



" No, my fellow-citizens," he added, " we cannot separate. 
We cannot remove our respe6tive sections from each other, nor 
build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife 
may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach 
of each other; but the dilTerent parts of the country cannot do 
this. They cannot but remain face to face, and intercourse, either 
amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, 
then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satis- 
fa6lory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties 
easier than friends can make laws ? Suppose you go to war, you 
cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, 
and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical question as 
to terms of intercourse are again before you. In your hands, my 
dissatisfied fellow-citizens, and not in mine, is the momentous 
question of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You 
can have no conflict w^ithout being yourselves the aggressors. 
You have no oath registered in heaven to oblige you to destroy 
the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one ^ to pre- 
serve, prote6t, and defend it.' We are not enemies, but friends. 
We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, 
it must not break our bonds of afieftion." 

We know how the South responded to this touching appeal. 
I will not write the history of the war. I will only say, that as 
long as Mr. Lincoln hoped to save the Union without touching 
slaver}^, he did not proclaim emancipation. In Europe, this mod- 
eration has been imperfeftly understood : the President has been 
often reproached for what was to him a claim of honor. What- 
ever were Mr. Lincoln's personal sentiments, however opposed 
he was to sl'avery, he set the duty of the magistrate before every 
thing. He had found slavery in the Constitution that he had 
sworn to maintain; as president, he had not the right, therefore, 
to touch it. 



324 Eulogies^ Speeches^ and Letters. 

But this same Constitution gave the President the right to 
seize the property of the enemy, and to take all measures neces- 
sary for the suppression of the rebellion. After waiting more 
than a year, therefore, Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation, Sep- 
tember 22, 1862, declaring that, from the first of January, 1863, 
all slaves belonging to the States at war with the Union should 
be for ever free. From this epoch, liberty legally took a place on 
the soil of America: it remains now to establish it there in fa6l, — 
a great measure, which would have demanded all the prudence of 
Mr. Lincoln. 

In the four 37ears of a presidency sustained amidst the hazards 
of civil war, this obscure Illinois lawyer, elevated to the Chief 
Magistracy by the caprice of a popular vote, succeeded in win- 
ning public esteem to such a degree, by his firmness and good 
sense, that a unanimous vote called for the second time to a seat 
in the White House him whom public opinion had so justly 
named " Honest Abraham." This time it was not only the parti- 
sans of the first ele6lion that united to secure the success of their 
candidate and to profit by his success ; but his former adversaries, 
with one of the most important men in America, Edward Everett, 
at their head, hastened in crowds to rall}^ round the President, 
and energetically to oppose the unlucky election of General Mc- 
Clellan. By his patriotic devotion, Lincoln had identified himself 
with his country: without seeking it, he had become the man of 
the situation. His triumph was the triumph of the Union, and the 
end of the civil war. His vi6tory was the vi6tory itself of the 
Constitution and the laws. 

To him, still as simple and as modest, — I should say still 

more modest and more deeply penetrated with the sentiment of 

his responsibility, — this honor only seemed a new means of serv- 

\ ing his country. His Inaugural Address to Congress, March 4, 

1865, shows us what progress had been made in his soul. This 



Edouard Laboiilaye. 325 



piece of familiar eloquence is a masterpiece: it is the testament 
of a patriot. I do not believe that any eulogy of the President 
would equal this page on which he has depi6ted himself in all his 
greatness and all his simplicity. 

I know not whether I am mistaken ; but it seems to me, that, 
in these words, so different from the ordinary language of the pol- 
itician, in this appeal to humility and resignation, in this religious 
submission, we feel an indescribable self-abnegation, and a pre- 
sentiment, as it were, of a speedy end, which makes us shudder. 
Mr. Lincoln, however, did not fear death. To all the threats that 
were addressed to him, as to all the anxiety with which it was 
souo-ht to inspire him, he had an answer ready at the bottom of 
his heart, — that of our old knights, whose soul was not more 
noble than that of the Springfield lawyer, — Do thy devoir, happen 
what may. 

In the present situation, the loss of Mr. Lincoln is a great one 
to America. I know that in a country which rules itself a man 
is less necessary than elsewhere; and there is reason to have con- 
fidence in the new president, who also has elevated himself by 
persistent labor, and who has long shown courage and energy. 
But, whatever may be the merit of Mr. Johnson, he has not be- 
hind him four years of moderation which gives confidence to all, 
and which might disarm the hatred in the North as in the South. 
We may hope, however, that Mr. Lincoln's policy will be fol- 
lowed by his successor: he will find around him statesmen like 
Mr. Seward, generals like Grant, a whole tradition which cannot 
be too carefully preserved, if it is wished to complete the work of 
Mr. Lincoln. To pacify minds after four years of civil war is an 
undertaking even more difficult than to pacify the country: it 
needs as much goodness as energy. 

America will not be the only one that will honot Mr. Lincoln. 
It is not to his ^country alone that Mr. Lincoln has rendered a 



326 



Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 



service: it is to all humanity. History, it must be admitted, is 
too often only a school of immorality. It shows us the victory of 
force or stratagem, much more than the success of justice, mod- 
eration, and probity. It is too often only the apotheosis of tri- 
umphant selfishness. There are noble and great exceptions: 
happy those who can increase the number, and thus bequeath a 
noble and beneficent example to posterity! Mr. Lincoln is among 
these. He would willingly have repeated, after Franklin, that 
" falsehood and artifice are the pra6lice of fools, who have not wit 
enough to be honest: " all his private life, and all his political life, 
was inspired and dire6led by this profound faith in the omnipo- 
tence of virtue. It is through this again that he deserves to be 
compared to Washington: it is through this that he will remain 
in history with the most glorious name that can be merited by the 
head of a free people, — a name given him by his contemporaries, 
and which will be preserved to him by posterity, — that of Hon- 
est Abraham Lincoln. 




LETTER FROM HENRI MARTIN 



TRANSLATED FROM THE PARIS " SIECLE. 



SLAVERY, before expiring, has gathered up the remnants of 
its strength and rage to strike a coward blow at its con- 
querer. 

The Satanic pride of that perverted society could not resign 
itself to defeat: it did not care to fall with honor, as all causes fall 
which are destined to rise again : it dies as it has lived, violating 
all laws, divine and human. 

In this we have the spirit, and perhaps the work, of that 
famous secret association, "The Golden Circle," which, after 
preparing the great rebellion for twenty years, and spreading its 
accomplices throughout the West and North, around the seat of 
the presidency, gave the signal for this impious war on the day 
when the public conscience finally snatched from the slaveholders 
the Government of the United States. 

The day on which the excellent man whom they have just 
made a martyr was raised to power, they appealed to force, to 
realize what treason had prepared. 

They have failed. They did not succeed in overthrowing 
Lincoln from power by war: they have done so by assassination. 

The plot appears to have been well arranged. By striking 
down with the President his two principal ministers, one of whom 
they reached, and the General-in-chief, who was saved by an 



328 Eulogies, Speeches, and Letters. 

accidental occurrence, the murderers expe6ted to disorganize the 
Government of the RepubHc, and give' fresh life to the re- 
bellion. 

Their hopes will be frustrated. These sanguinary fanatics, 
v^hose cause has fallen not so much by the material superiority as 
the moral power of democracy, have become incapable of under- 
standinor the effe6ls of the free institutions which their fathers 
gloriously aided in establishing. A fresh illustration will be seen 
of what those institutions can produce. 

The indignation of the people will not exhaust itself in a mo- 
mentary outburst; it will concentrate and embody itself in the 
unanimous, persevering, invincible a6lion of the universal will: 
whoever may be the agents, the instruments of the work, that 
work, we may rest assured, will be finished. The event will 
show that it did not depend upon the life of one man, or of sev- 
eral men. 

The work will be completed after Lincoln, as if finished by 
him; but Lincoln will remain the austere and sacred personifica- 
tion of a great epoch, the most faithful expression of democracy. 

This simple and upright man, prudent and strong, elevated 
step by step from the artisan's bench to the command of a great 
nation, and always, without parade and without effort, at the height 
of his position; executing without precipitation, without flourish, 
and with invincible good sense, the most colossal a6ts; giving to 
the world this decisive example of the civil power in a republic; 
dire6f;ing a gigantic war, without free institutions being for an 
instant compromised or threatened by military usurpation; dying, 
finally, at the moment in which, after conquering, he was intent 
on pacification, — and may God grant, that the atrocious madmen 
who killed him have not killed clemency with him, and deter- 
mined, instead of the peace he wished, pacification by force! — 
this man will stand out, in the traditions of his country and the 



Henri Alar tin. 



329 



world, as an incarnation of the people, and of modern democracy 

itself 

The great work of emancipation had to be sealed, therefore^ 
with the blood of the just, even as it was inaugurated with the 
blood of the just. The tragic history of the abplition of slavery, 
which opened with the gibbet of John Brown, will close with the 
assassination of Lincoln. 

And now let him rest by the side of Washington, as the second 
founder of the great Republic. European democracy is present 
in spirit at his funeral, as it voted in its heart for his re-eleaion, 
and applauded the viaory in the midst of which he passes away. 
It will wish with one accord to associate itself with the monument 
that America will raise to him upon the capital of prostrate sla- 

^^^^' HENRI MARTIN. 




42 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE FROM THE REV. ELIAS NASON. 

QUITE a serious error has crept into the biographies of Mr. Lincohi, in 
respect to his parentage. His mother's name is said to be Nancy Hanks^ 
while in reality it was Nancy Sparrow. Our late illustrious Chief Magistrate 
was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, on the twelfth day of February, 1809, 
and was the son of Mr. Thomas and Nancy [Sparrow] Lincoln. The other 
children were Sarah, who married Mr. Grigsby, and died in Indiana ; and a 
son, who died in infancy. 

Thomas Lincoln was the son of Abraham, who was shot by an Indian in 
1784. His children were Mordecai, who avenged the death of his father; 
Joseph, Mary, Nancy, and Thomas. The family is very probably from the 
New-England stock, which settled at Hingham previous to 1640. Thomas 
Lincoln was a man of integrity, but could neither read nor write. He married 
Miss Nancy Sparrow in 1806. She was the daughter of Henry and Lucy 
[Hanks] Sparrow ; was born in Mercer County, Kentucky, and grew up in the 
family of her uncle, William Hanks. She was tall and commanding in person, 
could read and write, was a good singer, and a member of the Baptist Church. 
Her name was mentioned by her neighbors only to be praised. She had a 
sister Mary, who married Thomas Whitehouse ; another sister, Sarah, and two 
brothers, Thomas and Henry. She died in 1818. Mr. Thomas Lincoln mar- 
ried, for his second wife, Mrs. Sarah [Bush] Johnson, of Hardin County, Ken- 
tucky, who still lives with her daughter Matilda, on the farm which Mr. Lincoln 
bought for his father, Thomas, in Cole's County, Illinois^ 



North Billerica, Mass., Aug. 28, 1S65. 



13il)Uograp1)iraI Ui^t of li3ooiks antr i^ampijlcts ; 

CONTAINING 

SERMONS, ORATIONS, EULOGIES, POEMS, 

OR OTHER PAPERS RELATING TO 

THE ASSASSINATION, DEATH, AND FUNERAL OBSEQUIES 
OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



The following is not offered as a complete Catalogue upon the subjeA to which it 
relates : it embraces only such works as are in the possession of the compiler of this vol- 
ume, and is printed simply to aid whoever may contemplate a more elaborate publication 
of the same character. 

Allen, Rev. Ethan. Sermon delivered at St. Thomas Church, Homestead, 
Baltimore Co., Md., June i, 1S65. Baltimore. i3mo. pp. 13. 

Andrew, Hon. John A. Message to Massachusetts Legislature, July 17, 
1865. Boston. 8vo. pp. 8. 

Atwood, Rev. E. S. Two Sermons delivered in Salem, Mass., April 17, and 
June I, 1865. Salem. 8vo. pp. 31. 

Babcock, Rev. S. D. Sermon delivered at Dedham, Mass., April 19, 1S65. 
Dedham. 8vo. pp. 16. 

Badger, Rev. H. C. Sermon preached at Cambridgeport, April 23, 1861. 
Boston, 8vo. pp. 18. 

Bancroft, Hon. Geo. Article " Atlantic Monthly," June, 1865. 

Barnes, Rev. A. Sermon preached in Philadelphia, Pa., June i, 1865. Phil- 
adelphia. 8vo. pp. 74. 

Bartol, Rev. C. A., D.D. Sermon preached in West Church, Boston, 
June I, 1865. Boston. " Monthly Religious Magazine," for July. pp. 8. 

Benjamin, S. W. G. Ode on the Death of Abraham Lincoln. Boston. i2mo. 

PP- 15- 
Bingham, Rev. Joel F. Sermon preached in Buffalo, N.Y., May 7, 1865. 

Buffalo, N.Y. 8vo. pp. 36. 



Bibliographical L ist of Books and Pamphlets. 335 



BiNNEY, Hon. Wm. Oration delivered in Providence, R.I., June i, 1865. 

Providence, R.I. Svo. pp. 1^6. 
BiNNS, Rev. W. Sermon preached in Birkenhead, Enghxnd, April, 30, 1S65. 

Birkenhead. i6mo. pp. 13. 
Blackburn, Rev. W. M. Sermon preached at Trenton, New Jersey, April 

16, 1S65. Trenton, N.J. Svo. pp. 24. 
Bliss, Rev. T. E. Sermon preached at Memphis, Tenn., April 33, 1S65. 

Memphis, Tenn. Svo. pp. 16. 
BoARDMAN, Rev, G. D. Tw^o Sermons preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 

16 and 19, 1S65. Philadelphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 64. 
BoARDMAN, Rev. H. A., D.D. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., June i, 

1S65. Philadelphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 32. 
Booth, Rev. R., D.D. Sermon preached at New York, April 23, 1S65. New 

York. Svo. pp. 23. 
BouTWELL, Hon. G. S. Eulogy delivered at Lowell, Mass., April 19, 1S65. 

Lowell, Mass. Svo. pp. 67. 
Brakeman, Rev. N. L. Sermon preached at Baton Rouge, La., April 23, 

1S65. New Orleans, La. Svo. pp. 32. 
Briggs, Rev. G. W., D.D. Eulogy delivered at Salem, Mass., with the Pro- 
ceedings of the City Council, June i, 1S65. Salem, Mass. Svo. pp. 48. 
Brooks, Rev. P. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 23, 1S65. 

Philadelphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 24. 
Broome, W. W. Abraham Lincoln's CharacSler sketched by English Travel- 
lers. Svo. pp. 4. 
BuLKLEY, Rev. E. A. Sermon preached at Plattsburgh, N.Y., April 19, 1S65. 

Plattsburgh, N.Y. Svo. pp. 16. 
Bullock, Hon. A. H. Eulogy delivered at Worcester, Mass., June i, 1865. 

Worcester. Svo. pp. 49. 
Burns, Rev. R. F. Address delivered at St. Catherine's, C.W., April, pp. 

23. See " Maple Leaves." 
Burrows, Rev. J, L., D.D. Sermon preached at Richmond, Va., April 23, 

1S65. Richmond, Va. Svo. pp. I3. 
Butler, Rev. C. M., D.D. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 19, 

1865. Philadelphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 32. 
Butler, Rev. H. E. Sermon preached at Keeseville, N.Y., April 23, 1S65. 

Burlington, Vt. Svo. pp. 23. 
Butler, Rev. J. G. Sermon preached at Washington, D.C., April 16, 1865. 

Washington, D.C. Svo. pp. 14. 



33^ Appendix. 

Carey, Rev. I. C. Sermon delivered at Freeport, 111., April 19, 1865. Free- 
port, 111. 8vo. pp. 8. 
Carey, Rev. I. C. Sermon delivered at Freeport 111., June i, 1S65. Free- 
port, 111. 8vo. pp. 8. 

Carnahan, Rev. D. T. Sermon preached at Gettysburg, Pa., June i, 1865. 
Gettysburg, Pa. 8vo. pp. 24. 

Chaffin, Rev. W. L. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 23, 1865. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 18. 

Chamberlain, Rev. N. H. Sermon preached at Birmingham, Conn., April 19, 
1865. New York. i2mo. pp. 22. 

Chase, Prof. Thomas. Address delivered at Haverford College, West Haver- 
ford, Pa., on fifth-day evening, seventh month, 6th, 1865. 

Chester, Rev. John. Sermon preached at Washington, D.C., April 16, 1865. 
Washington, D.C. Svo. pp. 16. 

Clark, Rev. A. Sermon preached at Cincinnati, Ohio, April 19, 1865. Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. 8vo. pp. 16. 

Clark, Hon. Dan'l. Eulogy delivered at Manchester, N.H., June i, 1865. 
Manchester, N.H. Svo. pp. 36. 

Clarke, Rev. J. F., D.D. Sermon preached in Indiana-Place Chapel, Boston, 
January 16, 1865. Boston. i6mo. pp. 24. 

Colfax, Hon. S. Address delivered at South Bend, Ind., April 24, 1865. 
Philadelphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 29. 

CoLMAN, Rev. G. W. Sermon preached at Ac^on, Mass., April 16, 1S65. 
Boston, Mass. Svo. pp. ic;. 

Commemorative Proceedings of the Athenaeum Club, New York, on the Death 
of Abraham Lincoln. New York. Svo. pp. 37. 

Cooper, Rev. Jas. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 16, 1S65. 
Philadelphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 24. 

Craig, Rev. W. Sermon preached at New Bedford, Mass., April 23, 1865. 
New Bedford. Svo. pp. 14. 

Crane, Rev. C. B. Sermon preached at Hartford, Conn., April 16, 1865. 
Hartford, Conn. Svo. pp. 29. 

Crocker, S. L., Jun., Esq. Eulogy delivered at Taunton, Mass., June i, 1S65. 
Boston. Svo. pp. 28. 

Crozier, Rev. H. P. Sermon preached at Huntington, N.Y., April 19, 1865. 
Huntington, N.Y. Svo. pp. 16. 

CuDwoRTH, Rev. W. H. Eulogy delivered at East Boston, May S, 1865, 
Boston. Svo. pp. 27. 



Bibliographical List of Books and Pamphlets. 337 



CusHMAN, Rev. R. S. Sermon preached at Manchester, Vt., April 19, 1865. 
Manchester, Vt. 8vo. pp. 20. a -i o/c^ 

CutLer Rev! k. T. Sermon preached at Rockland, Me., Apr.l .9, .865. 

Boston. 8vo. pp.16. , ■ , MV Anril 16 

Daggett, Rev. O. E. Sermon preached at Canand.-.igua, N.\., April .0, 

l86<. Canandaigua, N.Y. Svo. pp.16. 
DARLING, Rev. H., 5.D. Sermon pre,aehed at Albany, N.^ ., Apr.l .9, .865. 

Albany, N.Y. 8vo. pp. 24- ,„■.<-,, irt 4„ril ji Svo 

Dascomb, Rev. A. B. Sermon preached at Waitsfield, Vt., Apul 23- 8™. 

DAVIDSON,' Rev. R., D.D. Sermon preached at Huntington, N.Y., April ,9, 
DAv! rI p"r'trmo^n;';ea!h:d .rH^U., N,H., June ., .865. Concord, 
Dka!?,- Hon' S.- ^ delivered at Providence, R.I., April ,9, .865- P™vl- 
DBJ:rkt' H.™C. "luSy delivered at Hartford, Conn., June ., .865. 
DE ^r ;.tR;v.^j':ts.%°;rm^rn fr-eached at Portsmouth, N.H., April 
16,1865. Portsmouth, N.H. .6mo. pp.8. Cambrid.re, 

D.x, Rev. M. Sermon preached at New York, Apr.l .9, -Se,. Camb.,d„e, 

Mass. 8vo. pp. 16. RvUtnl Pa April 16, 1865. 

Drumm, Rev. J. H., M.D. Sermon preached at Bnstol, Fa., Ap. 

DjK:R;rR."rSe.l.rp-eached at Providence, R.I., April .9, .865- 

.J::^:yt re:morpr:i;hedatMlddletow,.,April.6,.865. Mid- 

Dj;r"H^rG.":nr;r;ached at Detroit, Mich., April .6, .865. 

D™H:rRev:H.%tss delivered at Baltimore, Md., April ,9, .S65. 

Dt^rrR:;'"-. tmo-nV^-ed at Balthriore, Md., April 23, .865. 

Baltimore, Md. 8vo. pp.12. Mnv 7 i86<. 8vo. 

DUNNING, Rev. H. Sermon preached at Baltu.ore, Md., Ma, 7, . 

Baltimore, Md. pp.12. a, ^-il to 186s. Albany, N.Y. 

Dyer, Rev. D. Sermon preached at Albany, Apul 19, i^b,. ) 

Svo. pp. 20. 

43 



338 Appendix. 

Eddy, Rev. D. C, D.D. Sermon preached at Boston, April 16, 1S65. Bos- 
ton. 32mo. pp. 23. 
Eddy, Rev. R. Three Sermons preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 16 and 

19, and June i, 1865. Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 27. 
Edgar, Rev. C. H., D.D. Three Sermons preached at Easton, Pa., April 16 

and 19, and May 3. Svo. pp. 20. 
Edgar, Rev. C. H., D.D. Sermon preached at Easton, Pa., June i. Easton, 

Pa. Svo. pp. 12. 
Edwards, Rev. H. L. Sermon preached at South Abington, June i, 1865. 

Boston. 8vo. pp. 16. 
Egar, Rev. J. H., D.D. Sermon preached at Leavenworth, Kansas, June i, 

1865. Leavenworth, Kan. 8vo. pp. 16. 
EiNHORN, Rev. D., D.D. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa. Printed in 

German. Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 8. 
Ellis, C. M., Esq. Address delivered at St. John, N.B., June i, 1865. St. 

John, N.B. i6mo. pp. 31. 
Ellis, Rev. R. Sermon preached in Boston, June 16. " Monthly Religious 

Magazine," May, 1865. 
Ellis, Rev. R. Address delivered in Boston, June 19. " Monthly Religious 

Magazine," May, 1865. 
Everett, Rev. C. C. Two Sermons preached at Bangor, April 16 and 19. 

Bangor, Me. Svo. pp. 25. 
Everett, Rev. C. C. Eulogy delivered at Bangor, Me., June i, 1865. Ban- 
gor. Svo. pp. 30. 
Farquhar, Rev. J. Sermon preached in Lower Chanceford, York Co., Pa., 

June I, 1865. Lancaster, Pa. Svo. pp. 23. 
Field, Rev. T. P., D.D. See Wilcox. 
Fowler, Rev. H. Sermon pi-eached at Auburn, N.Y., April 23, 1865. 

Auburn, N.Y. Svo. pp. 16. 
Fowler, J., Jun. Eulogy delivered at New Rochelle, N.Y., April 23, 1S65. 

New York. Svo. pp. 28. 
Frothingham, Rev. Q. B. Article, " Friend of Progress," New York, June, 

1S65. 
Gaddis, Rev. M. P. Sermon preached at Cincinnati, Ohio, April 16, 1S65. 

Cincinnati, Ohio. Svo. pp. 15. 
Garrison, Rev. J. F., M.D. Sermon preached at Camden, N.J., April 19, 

1S65. Camden, -N.J. Svo. pp. 20. 
Gear, Rev. D. L. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 23. Phila- 
delphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 8. 



Bibliographical List of Books and PampJilets. 339 

Gillette, Rev. A. G., D.D. Sermon preached at Washington, D.C., April 
23, 1S65. Washington, D.C. 8vo. pp. 15. 

Glover, Rev. L. M., D.D. Sermon preached at Jacksonville, 111., April 23, 
IS65. Jacksonville, 111. 8vo. pp. 21. 

Gordon, Rev. W. R., D.D. Sermon preached at Schraalenberg, N.J., May 7, 
1865. New York. Svo. pp. 24. 

GuRLEY, Rev. P. D., D.D. Sermon preached at Washington, D.C, June i, 
1865. Washington, D.C. 8vo. pp. 16. 

Guthrie, Dr. W. E. Oration addressed to the American People. Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 32mo. pp. 9. 

Hale, Rev. E. E. " The President's Words." Boston, 1865. i vol., cloth. 
i6mo. pp. 186. 

Hall, Rev. C. H. Sermon preached at Washington, D.C, April 16, 1865. 
Washington, D.C. Svo. pp. 15. 

Hall, Rev. G., D.D. Sermon preached at Northampton, Mass., April 19, 
1865. Northampton, Mass. Svo. pp. 16. 

Hall, Rev. N. Sermon preached at Surrey Chapel, London, May 14. Bos- 
ton, Mass. Svo. pp. 16. 

Hammond, Rev. C Sermon preached at Monson, Mass., June i, 1865. 
Springfield, Mass. Svo. pp. 21. 

Hannaford, Mrs. P. A. " The Martyred President." Poem. Boston. Svo. 
pp. 24. 

Hardinge, Miss E. Oration delivered at New York, April 16, 1865. New 
York. Svo. pp. 28. 

Hathaway, Rev. W. Sermon preached at Coxsackie, April 19, 1865. 
Albany, N.Y. Svo. pp. 24. 

Haven, Rev. G. Sermon preached at Boston, Mass., April 23, 1865. Bos- 
ton, Mass. Svo. pp. 32. 

Hawley, Rev. B., D.D. Sermon preached at Albany, N.Y., April 20, 1865. 
Albany, N.Y. Svo. pp. 20. 

Hayden, Mrs. C A. " A Tribute to Abraham Lincoln." Poem. Boston. 
i2mo. pp. 23. 

Hepworth, Rev. G. H. Two Sermons preached at Boston, April 23, 1865. 
Boston. i2mo. pp. 27. 

Hepworth, Rev. G. H. Sermon preached at Boston. Boston, Mass. i2mo. 

pp. 31. 
Hibbard, Rev. A. G. Sermon preached at Detroit, Mich., April 16, 1865. 
Detroit, Mich. Svo. pp. 12. 



34° Appendix. 

Hitchcock, Rev. H. L. Sermon preached at Hudson, Ohio, April 19, 1865. 

Cleveland, Ohio. Svo. pp. 23. 
Hodge, Rev. C, D.D. Article from " Princeton Review." New Yoi'k. Svo. 

pp. 24. 
Hoffman, Rev. E. A. Sermon preached at Brooklyn, N.Y., April 26, 1865. 

New York. Svo. pp. 16. 
Holland, Dr. J. G. Eulogy delivered at Springfield, Mass., April 19, 1S65, 

with Observances of the City Authorities. Springfield, Mass. Svo. 

pp. 32. 
HowLETT, Rev. T. R. Sermon preached at Washington, D.C., June i, 1S65. 

Washington, D.C. Svo. pp. 7. 
" In Memoriam."- Abraham Lincoln. New York. Svo. pp. 32. With 

portrait. 
Ives, Rev. A. E. Sermon preached at Castine, Me. Bangor. Svo. pp. 14. 
Jeffrey, Rev. R. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., June i, 1S65. Phil- 
adelphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 28. 
Johnston, Rev. E. H. Sermon preached at Harrisburg, Pa., June i, 1S65. 

Harrisburg, Pa. Svo. pp. 11. 
Johnston, Rev. H. Sermon preached at Pittsburgh, Pa., April 23, 1S65. 

Pittsburgh, Pa. Svo. pp. 11. 
Johnson, Rev. Sam'l. Discourse preached at Lynn, Mass., April 19, 1S65. 

Printed, not published. Svo. pp. 10. 
Keeling, Rev. R. J. Sermon preached at Washington, D.C, April 23, 1865. 

Washington, D.C. Svo. pp. 16. 
Krauth, Rev. C. P., D.D. Sermon preached at Pittsburgh, Pa., June i, 1865. 

Pittsburgh, Pa. Svo. pp. 23. 
Krebs, Rev. Hugo, D.D. Sermon preached at St. Louis, Mo., April 19, 

1S65. Printed in German. St. Louis, Mo. Svo. pp. 8. 
Krebs, Rev. Hugo, D.D. The same translated into English. Svo. pp. 8. 
Krummacher, Dr. See Sturz. 
Laurie, Rev. Thomas. Two Sermons preached at West Roxbury, Mass., 

April 19 and 23, 1S65. Dedham, Mass. Svo. pp. 40. 
" LiNCOLNiANA," Containing Forty Sermons, Orations, Eulogies, Addresses, 

Speeches, and Letters. Boston, 1S65. i vol. Small 4to. pp. viii. 346. 
LiEBER, Frakcis. " The Martyr's Monument." New York, i vol. i2mo. 

pp. 297. 
" Lincoln Memorial." City of Boston, i vol., cloth. Svo,, large paper, 

PP- 153- 



Bibliographical L is I of Books and Pamphlets. 341 



" Lincoln Memorial." A Record of the Life, Assassination, and Obsequies of 
the Martyred President. New York, i vol. 8vo. pp. 2S8. 

Lowe, Rev, Charles. Sermon preached in Charleston, S.C., April 23, 1865. 
Boston. i2mo. pp. 24. 

LowRiE, Rev. J. M. Sermon preached at Fort Wayne. Ind., April 16, 1865. 
Fort Wayne, Ind. 8vo. pp. 16. 

Ludlow, Rev. J. M. Sermon preached at Albany, N.Y., April 23, 1865. 
Albany, N.Y. 8vo. pp. 27. 

MacEl'Rey, Rev. J. H., M.D. Sermon preached at Wooster, Ohio, April 16, 
1865. Wooster, Ohio. i2mo. pp. 24. 

McCauley, Rev. James. Sermon preached at Baltimore, Md., June i, 1865. 
Baltimore, Md. 8vo. pp. 16. 

McClintock, Rev. J. H., D. D. Sermon preached at New York, April 19, 
1865. New York. 8vo. pp. 35. 

" Maple Leaves from Canada for the Grave of Abraham Lincoln," 
being a Discourse by Rev. Robert Norton, and an Address by Rev. Robert 
F. Burns, together with Proceedings of Public Meeting at St. Catherine's, 
C.W., April 23, 1865, &c. St. Catherine's, C.W. 8vo. pp. 40. 

Marshall, Rev. J. Sermon preached near Fortress Monroe, April 29, 1865. 
Syracuse, N.Y. 8vo. pp. 40. 

Mayo, Rev. A. D. Two Sermons preached at Cincinnati, Ohio, April 16 and 
19, 1865. Cincinnati, Ohio. 8vo. pp. 28. 

Miller, Hon. S. F. Eulogy delivered at Franklin, N.Y., June i, i86v 
Delhi, N.Y. 8vo. pp. 16. 

Mitchell, Rev. S. S. Address delivered at Harrisburg, Pa., April 19, 1865. 
Harrisbui-g, Pa.' pp. 15. 

Morais, Rev. S. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., June i, 1865. Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 8. 

Morehouse, Rev. H. L. Sermon preached at East Saginaw, Mich. East 
Saginaw, Mich. i2mo. pp. 16. 

Morris, B. F., Esq. " The Nation's Tribute to Abraham Lincoln." Wash- 
ington, D.C., 1865. I vol., cloth. 8vo. pp. 272. 

Myers, Hon. L. Address delivered at Philadelphia, Pa., June 15, 186:;. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 15. 

Nadals, Rev. B. H., D.D. Sermon preached at Washington, D.C., June i, 
1865. Washington, D.C. 8vo. pp. 15. 

Nason, Rev. Elias. Eulogy delivered at Boston, May 3, 1S65. Boston. 
8vo. pp. 28. 



342 Appendix. 

" National Preacher." New York. Double number, May and June. 
Contains six Sermons. 

Nelson, Rev. H. A. Sermon preached at Springfield, 111., May 7, 1865. 
Springfield, 111. 8vo. pp. 39. 

Newell, Robert. Poem : " The Martyr-President." New York, 1865. 
i6mo. pp. 43. 

NiCHOLLS, Rev. S. Sermon preached at St. Louis, April 23, 1865. St. Louis, 
Mo. 8vo. pp. 16. 

NiLES, Rev. H. E. Address delivered at York, Pa., April 19, 1S65. York, 
Pa. 8vo. pp. 8. 

Noble, Rev. M. Sermon preached at Newport, R.I., April 19, 1865. New- 
port, R.I. 8vo. pp. 16. 

Norton, Rev. R. See Maple Leaves. 

" Our Martyr-President, Abraham Lincoln." Voices from the Pulpits 
of New York and Brooklyn. New York, 186^. i2mo., cloth, pp. 420. 

Paddock, Rev. W. F. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 23, 1865. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 24. 

Parke, Rev. N. G. Sermon preached at Pittston, Pa., June i, 1865. Pittston, 
Pa. Svo. pp. 20. 

Parker, Rev. H. C Sermon preached at Concord, N.H., April 16, 1865. 
Concord, N.H. 8vo. pp. \^. 

Patterson, Rev. A. J. Eulogy delivered at Portsmouth, N.H., with an 
Account of the Obsequies observed by the City, April 19, 1S65. Ports- 
mouth, N.H. Svo. pp. 30. 

Patterson, Hon. J. W. Eulogy delivered at Concord, N.H., June i, 1865. 
Concord, N.H. 8vo. pp. 24. 

Patterson, Rev. R. M, Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 44. 

Pettee, Rev. J. Sermon preached at Abington, Mass., April 19, 1865. Bos- 
ton. " New-Jerusalem Magazine," May, 1865. 

" Poetical Tributes to the Memory of Abraham Lincoln." Philadel- 
phia, Pa., 1865. I vol., cloth. i2mo. pp. 306. 

Potter, Rev. W. J. Four Sermons preached at New Bedford, Mass., April 
16, 19, and June i and 4. New Bedford, Mass. 8vo. pp. 6"]. 

Prime, Rev. G. W. Sermon preached at Detroit, Mich., April 16, 1865. 
Detroit, Mich. 8vo. pp. 16. 

Proceedings of the City Council of Balitmore, Md., April 15, 1865. Balti- 
more. Svo. pp. 24. 

Proceedings of the City Council of Boston, Mass., April 17, 1S65. Boston. 
Svo. pp. 35. 



Bibliographical List of Books and PampJilets. 343 



Proceedings of the Bunker Hill Monument Association. Published in the 
Annual Report of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, June 17, 1865. 
Boston. Svo. 

Proceedings of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, April 24, 1S65. Phila- 
delphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 4. 

Proceedings of a called Meeting of Ministers of all Denominations in the 
District of Columbia, April 17, 1865. Washington, D.C. Svo. pp. 14. 

Proceedings of the Union League of Philadelphia, April 15, 1S65. Philadel- 
phia, Pa. Svo. pp. 22. 

Putnam, Rev. Geo., D.D. Address delivered at Roxbury, Mass., with Order 
of Exercises, April 19, 1S65. Roxbury, Mass. Svo. pp. 15. 

Quint, Rev. A. H. Two Sermons preached at New Bedford, Mass., a.m. and 
P.M., April 16, 1865. New Bedford, Mass. Svo. pp. 45. 

Rankin, Rev. J. H. Sermon preached at Charlestown, Mass., April 19, 1865. 
Boston. Svo. pp. 16. 

Reed, Rev. S. Sermon preached at Edgartown, Mass., April 19, 1S65. Bos- 
ton. Svo. pp. 24. 

Rice, Rev. Daniel. Sermon preached at Lafayette, Ind., April 19, 1S65. 
Lafayette, Ind. Svo. pp. 7- 

Rice, Rev. N. L., D.D. Sermon preached at New- York city, April 19, 1865. 
New York. Svo. pp. 16. 

RoBBiNS, Rev. F. L. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 23, 186^ 
Philadelphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 21. 

Robinson, Rev. C. S. Sermon preached at Brooklyn, N.Y., April 16, 1S65. 
New York. Svo. pp. 31. 

Russell, Rev. P. Two Sermons preached at Eckley, Pa., April 19, and 
June I, 1865. Philadelphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 30. 

Sample, Rev. R. F. Sermon preached at Bedford, Pa., April 23, 1S65. 
Philadelphia, Pa. Svo. pp. 32. 

Saunders, R. S., Esq. Oration delivered on Island No. 40, April 25, 1S65. 
Memphis, Tenn. Svo. pp. 16. 

Searing, Rev. E., A.M. Sermon preached at Milton, Wis., June i, 1S65. 
Janesville, Wis. Svo. pp. 20. 

Sedgewick, Hon. C. B. Eulogy delivei-ed at Syracuse, N.Y., April 19, 1865, 
Syracuse, N.Y. Svo. pp. 16. 

Seiss, Rev. J. A., D.D. Sermon preached at Philadelphia. Pa., June i, 1S65. 
Svo. pp. 45. 

" Sermons preached in Boston on the Death of Abraham Lincoln." Boston. 
i2mo. pp. 379- 



344 Appendix. 

Simpson, Rev. M., D.D. Funeral Address delivered at the Burial of President 

• Lincoln, at Springfield, III., May 4, 1865. Nev^ York. i2mo. pp. 21. 
Slater, Rev. E. C, D.D. Sermon preached at Paducah, Ky., April 19, 

1865. Paducah, Ky. 8vo. pp. 20. 
Smith, Rev. H., D.D. Sermon preached at Buffalo, N.Y., April 23, 1S65. 

Buffalo, N.Y. 8vo. pp. 32. 
Sniveley, Rev. W. A. Sermon and Address delivered at Pittsburgh, Pa., 

April 16 and 19, 1865. Pittsburgh, Pa. 8vo. pp. 38. 
Spatii, Rev. A. (German) Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 19, 

1865. Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 15. 
Spear, Rev. S. T., D.D. Sermon preached at Brookl3'n, N.Y., April 23, 

1865. Brooklyn, N.Y. 8vo. pp. 38. 
Sprague, Rev. W. B., D.D. Sermon preached at Albany, N.Y., April 16, 

1865. Albany, N.Y. i2mo. pp. iS. 
Starr, Rev. F., Jun. Sermon preached at St. Louis, Mo., April 16, 1865. 

St. Louis, Mo. 8vo. pp. 19. 
Steiner, L. H. Address delivered at the Glades, Frederick Co., Md., April 

23, 1S65. Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 15. 
Stewart, Rev. D., D.D. Discourse containing Substance of two Sermons 

preached at Johnstown, N. Y., April 16 and 19, 1865. Johnstown, N.Y. 

8vo. pp. 20. 
Stoddard, R. H. An Horatian Ode. New York. 8vo. pp. 12. 
Stone, Rev. A. L., D.D. Sermon preached in Boston, Mass., April 16, 1865. 

Boston, Mass. i2mo., large paper, pp. 21. 
Storrs, Rev. R. S., Jun., D.D. Oration delivered at Brooklyn, N.Y. , June i, 

1865. Brooklyn, N.Y. 8vo. pp. 65. 
Strong, Rev. J. D. Sermon preached at San Francisco, Cal., April 16, 1865. 

San Francisco, Cal. 8vo. pp. 14. 
Sturz, J. F. Speeches at the Funeral Observances at Berlin, Prussia, in 

Honor of President Lincoln, by German, English, and American Ministers. 

An Expression of the Church respedling Slavery and Free Labor. Berlin, 

Prussia. 8vo. pp. 39. 
Swain, Rev. L. Sermon preached at Providence, R.I., April 16, 1S65. Prov- 
idence, R.I. 8vo. pp. 10. 
Sweetser, Rev. S. Sermon preached at Worcester, Mass., April 23, 1865. 

Worcester, Mass. 8vo. pp. 29. 
Sumner, Hon. Charles. Eulogy delivered at Boston, Mass., June i, 1865. 

Boston. 8vo. pp. 61. 



Bibliographical List of Books and Pamphlets. 345 

SuTPHEN, Rev. IVI. C. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 16, 1865. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 19. 
Tapley, R. p., Esq. Eulogy delivered at Saco, Me., with Report of the Pro- 
ceedings of the Town, April 19, 1865. Biddeford, Me. 8vo. pp. 37. 
Tappan, Rev. H. P., D.D. See Sturz. 
Taylor, Rev. A. A. E. Sermon preached at Georgetown, D.C., June i, 1865. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 20. 
Thomas, Rev. A. G. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., April 19, 1865. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 16. 
TiMLOW, Rev. H. R. Sermon preached at Rhinebeck, N.Y., April 19, 1S65. 

Rhinebeck, N.Y. i6mo. pp. 42. 
Thompson, Rev. J. C. Sermon preached at Philadelphia, Pa., June i. 1865. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 20. 
Thompson, Rev. J. P., D.D. Sermon pi^eached at New York, April 30, 1865. 

New York. 8vo. pp. 38. 
TwoMBLY, Rev. A. S. Sermon preached at Albany, N.Y., April 16, 1865. 

Albany, N.Y. 8vo., large paper, pp. 18. 
Tucker, Rev. J. T. Sermon preached at Holliston, June i, 1865. Holliston, 

Mass. 8vo. pp. 21. 
Vincent, Rev. M. R. Sermon preached at Troy, N.Y., April 23, 1865. 

■ Troy, N.Y. 8vo. pp. 47. 
Walden, Rev. T. Two Addresses delivered at Philadelphia, Pa., April 16 

and 19, 1865. Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo. pp. 41. 
Wallace, Rev. C. C. Sermon preached at Placerv'ille, Cal., April 19, 1S65. 

Placerville. 8vo. pp. 9. 
Wayman, Rev. James. Sermon preached at Liverpool, Eng., May 7, 1865. 

Liverpool, Eng. 8vo. pp. 8. 
Webb, Rev. E. B. Sermon preached at Boston, Mass., April 16, 1S65. Bos- 
ton. 8vo. pp. 61. 
Weiss, Rev. J. Article in " Friend of Progress," New York, June, 1865. 
Westall, John. " In Memoriam." Poem : privately printed. Fall River, 

Mass. 8vo. pp. 8. 
White, Rev. E. N. Sermon preached at New Rochelle, N.Y. , June i, 1865. 

New York. 8vo. pp.25. 
White, Rev. P. H. Sermon preached at Coventry, Vt., April 23, 1865. Brat- 

tleboro', Vt. 8vo. pp. 20. 
WiLLCOX, Rev. G. B. Address delivered at New London, Conn., April 19, 

1865, together with an Address of Rev. T. P. Field, D.D., and Funeral 

Observances in that City, April 19, 1865. New London. 8vo. pp. 34. 

44 



34^ Appe^idix. 

Williams, Rev. R. H. Sermon preached at Frederick, Md., April lo i86cr 
Frederick, Md. 8vo. pp. ii. 

Williams, Rev. R. H. Sermon preached at Frederick, Md., June i, 1865. 
8vo. pp. 14. 

Williams, Hon. Thomas. Eulogj^ delivered at Pittsburgh, Fa., June i, 1865. 

8vO. JDp, 36. 

Wilson, Rev. W. T. M. A. Sermon preached at Albany, N.Y., April iq 

1S65. Albany. Svo. pp. 25. 
W^OODBURY, Rev. A. Sermon preached at Providence, R.I., April 16, 1S65. 

Providence. i2mo. pp. 27. 
Woodbury, Rev. A. Sermon preached at Providence, R.I., June i, 1865. 

Providence. i3mo. pp. 28. 

Worcester, Rev. T., D.D. Sermon preached at Boston, June i, 1S65. Bos- 
ton. 8vo. pp. 14. 

Yard, Rev. R. B. Sermon preached at Newark, N.J., June i, 1865. Newark, 
N.J. 8vo. pp. 23. 

Young, Rev. E. J. Article in - Monthly Religious Magazine." Boston, May 
1865. 

Yourtee, Rev. S. L. A. M. Sermon delivered at Springfield, Ohio, April 19, 
1S65. Springfield, Ohio. 8vo. pp. 16. 




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